President Obama signs NSA bill, renewing Patriot Act powers

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President Barack Obama signed legislation into law on June 2 reinstating key counterterrorism laws and reforming the government’s surveillance powers.

The announcement from the White House that President Obama had signed the USA Freedom Act came a few hours after the legislation sailed through the Senate 67-32, following a protracted debate that lasted for weeks and forced some of the provisions to expire for nearly two days. With Obama’s signature, three parts of the Patriot Act — including the controversial Section 215 — came back into force after expiring June 1. The bill also enacts the most sweeping surveillance reforms in a generation, for the first time in years putting new restrictions on federal intelligence powers. The USA Freedom Act ends the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records, limits other ways the government collects large amounts of records and adds new transparency measures to the way the government collects information.

The Senate’s overwhelming passage of the bill comes after a weeks-long standoff following the House’s approval by 338-88.


President Obama signs NSA bill, renewing Patriot Act powers Statement by the President on the USA FREEDOM Act (Press Release)