US to stop collecting phone metadata if Congress lets law expire
Washington: US intelligence agencies will stop bulk collection of data documenting calls by US telephone subscribers in June, unless Congress extends a law authorising the spying, US officials said on Monday.
The disclosure that the National Security Agency was collecting metadata generated by domestic telephone users was one of the most controversial revelations made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden nearly two years ago.
A spokesman for President Barack Obama's National Security Council said abandoning the mass collection of domestic telephone data would deprive the country of a "critical national security tool."
The current law, due to expire on June 1, allows the NSA to collect bulk data on numbers called and the time and length of calls, but not their content.
US to stop collecting phone metadata if Congress lets law expire
Of course it will continue, they have spent trillions of dollars on it….. it’s a pipe dream to think they are going to stop, even if the laws say they can’t do it.
NSA Bulk Surveillance Could Continue even if Legal Authority Expires on June 1
One of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) most controversial spying programs will lose its legal authority to continue after June 1 unless Congress acts soon. But this development would not necessarily mean the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone data will cease.
The provision of the USA Patriot Act (pdf) that allows the data collection, Section 215, is set to expire on June 1, and so far, lawmakers haven’t adopted legislation extending this authority. However, the Obama administration could continue the NSA program by drafting a legal memo authorizing the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to in turn approve the bulk collection effort until Congress does act.
“If Congress,” Judge James Boasberg of the FISC wrote, “has not enacted legislation amending [Section 215] or extending its sunset date, the government is directed to provide a legal memorandum … addressing the power of the Court to grant such authority beyond June 1, 2015.”
Some officials within the administration are hesitant to use “such circular justification,” Dustin Volz of National Journal wrote, to keep the bulk collection going. At the same time, some privacy advocates believe the administration will take action to keep the program in operation, fearing the loss of intelligence.
