Notice that the majority of these 37 scumbags are Republicans (plus some corporate Democrats like Mark Warner and Tim Kaine), which shows how seriously they take their rhetoric about “limited government.” And the great man of the people, Bernie Sanders, didn’t even bother to vote on this.

By Caleb Chen

Privacy News Online

A key amendment to the USA Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2020 (H.R. 6172) that would have required authorities to obtain a warrant before gaining access to American internet browsing and search history just failed on the Senate floor by a single vote. For those that are unaware, key parts of the Patriot Act – namely the mass surveillance section – is currently unauthorized and needs to be reauthorized by Congress to stay in effect. The current bill under consideration to do that is called the US FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020 and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has snuck in an amendment that would allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to seize internet search and browsing history if they claim it is tied to an active investigation. To try and stop this, Senators Wyden and Daines introduced their own amendment that would stop the FBI from being able to get that information without a warrant – as makes sense. That amendment needed 60 votes to pass, and only received 59 Wednesday afternoon.

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