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Congress approves limits on surveillance

WASHINGTON - Congress approved sweeping changes Tuesday to surveillance laws enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, eliminating the National Security Agency's disputed bulk phone-records collection program and replacing it with a more restrictive measure to keep the records in phone companies' hands.

WASHINGTON - Congress approved sweeping changes Tuesday to surveillance laws enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, eliminating the National Security Agency's disputed bulk phone-records collection program and replacing it with a more restrictive measure to keep the records in phone companies' hands.

Two days after Congress let the phone-records collection and several other antiterror programs expire, the Senate's 67-32 vote sent the legislation to President Obama, who signed it Tuesday night.

"This legislation will strengthen civil liberty safeguards and provide greater public confidence in these programs," Obama said in a statement. Officials said it could take at least several days to restart the collection.

The legislation will revive most of the programs the Senate had allowed to lapse in a dizzying collision of presidential politics and national security policy. But the authorization will undergo major changes, the legacy of agency contractor Edward Snowden's explosive revelations two years ago about domestic spying by the government.

In an unusual shifting of alliances, the legislation passed with the support of Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner but over the opposition of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell failed to persuade the Senate to extend the current law unchanged and came up short in a last-ditch effort Tuesday to amend the House version, as nearly a dozen of his own Republicans abandoned him in a series of votes.

"This is a step in the wrong direction," McConnell said on the Senate floor ahead of the final vote to approve the House version, dubbed the USA Freedom Act. He said the legislation "does not enhance the privacy protections of American citizens. And it surely undermines American security by taking one more tool from our war fighters at exactly the wrong time."

Among Philadelphia-area senators, all six voted yes, except Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), who voted no. Among senators who have announced their candidacy for president, Rand Paul (R., Ky.), Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), and Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent running as a Democrat, voted no; Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) did not vote.

The legislation remakes the most controversial aspect of the USA Patriot Act - the once-secret bulk-collection program that allows the NSA to sweep up Americans' phone records and comb through them for ties to international terrorists. Over six months the NSA will lose the power to collect and store those records, but the government still could gain court orders to obtain data connected to specific numbers from the phone companies, which typically store them for 18 months.

It would also continue other post-9/11 surveillance provisions that lapsed Sunday night and that are considered more effective than the phone-data collection program. These include the FBI's authority to gather business records in terrorism and espionage investigations.

"This legislation is critical to keeping Americans safe from terrorism and protecting their civil liberties," Boehner said. "I applaud the Senate for renewing our nation's foreign intelligence capabilities, and I'm pleased this measure will now head to the president's desk for his signature."

The outcome capped a dramatic series of events on Capitol Hill that saw Paul defy fellow Republicans and single-handedly force the existing law to lapse Sunday at midnight, leading to dire warnings of threats to America.

The suspense continued Tuesday as McConnell tried to get the Senate to go along with three amendments he said would make the House bill more palatable. But House leaders warned that if presented with the changes the House might not be able to approve them.

The changes sought by McConnell included lengthening the phaseout period of the bulk records program from six months to a year. Most controversially, McConnell would have weakened the power of a new panel of outside experts created to advise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The final vote divided Senate Republicans, with 23 voting yes and 30 voting no. Among Democrats, only Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin voted no.

Civil liberties groups have been mixed on the legislation, but the American Civil Liberties Union applauded the vote, with deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer calling it "a milestone."

Snowden, now in Russia and reviled by lawmakers of both parties, addressed the vote via video link during an event hosted by Amnesty International. He said the legislation was historic because Americans are questioning long-held assumptions that intelligence officials always act in their best interest.

At a Glance

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What's Out

The law bans bulk collection of data of Americans' telephone records and Internet metadata. It limits data collection to the "greatest extent reasonably practical" - which means the government can't collect all data pertaining to a certain service provider or a broad region.

What's In

Instead of bulk data collection, the law authorizes the government to collect from phone companies call records related to a suspect, if the government can prove it has "reasonable" suspicion of a link to a terrorist group.

It provides the government with new reporting rules to FISA authorities.

It gives private companies more opportunities to publicly report information about the number of FISA orders they receive.

It requires the FISA Court to designate a panel of advocates to represent the public's interest in cases with novel or significant legal issues.

- Washington Post

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INSIDE

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Toomey says phone-record changes will weaken U.S. security. A4.

FBI is behind mysterious surveillance aircraft over U.S. cities. A5.

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