海角大神

In the wake of June鈥檚 tragic Orlando attacks, the US Senate voted on a controversial measure to expand the government鈥檚 surveillance ability today.

, an amendment to a government spending bill, was proposed by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain of Arizona and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina, both Republicans.

The measure has two parts, the first of which would expand the existing Patriot Act, allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use an administrative subpoena called a to access online communications and browsing information.

The second part would make permanent the 鈥渓one wolf鈥� provision, which allows the FBI to watch suspected terrorists (including those without known terrorist group connections). This provision was originally due to expire in 2019.

鈥淭his is a larger issue than just a terrorism issue,鈥� Neema Guliani, a legislative council with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), tells 海角大神, 鈥渢his reaches every person who has ever sent an email or browsed a website.鈥�

Under the new measure, the FBI would be able to gather sensitive internet information 鈥� the to and from lines on emails, browser histories, and IP addresses 鈥� without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom or obtaining a warrant.

鈥淭his would be the most significant expansion of surveillance authority since the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 passed legalizing warrantless wiretapping and mass surveillance of internet communications,鈥� writes Robyn Green, Policy Counsel for New America's Open Technology Institute, in an email to the Monitor.

In the past ten years, Ms. Guliani聽says, the government has issued 300,000 national security letters. And according to Guliani, the Justice Department's inspector general reports have found that the authority granted by those letters has been widely abused by law enforcement officials, who have used them to request information outside their realm of authority, among other things.聽

Yet despite concerns about privacy violations, at least one inspector general report found that national security letters were , particularly after the passage of the Patriot Act.聽

FreedomWorks, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group that seeks to promote聽"less government, lower taxes, and more economic freedom,"聽wrote in a statement Wednesday that such a measure could violate the Fourth Amendment鈥檚 protections against .

Opponents have also criticized the timeframe with which this legislation has been proposed and moved forward.

鈥淭his is very much an attempt to move something quickly forward that hasn鈥檛 had sufficient debate,鈥� says Guliani, adding that the Patriot Act鈥檚 swift passage in October 2001 led to many confusion about what exactly some of the provisions meant for Americans.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D)聽of Oregon accused Senate Republicans of 鈥減ushing that will do nothing to prevent mass shootings or terrorist attacks,鈥� Reuters reports.

Proponents say that the amendment is necessary to ensure national security. In an increasingly digital world, the measure鈥檚 backers say, law enforcement efforts can be hampered by restrictions on their information gathering authority.

鈥淥ur failure to act to grant this authority, particularly in the wake of this terrible tragedy in Orlando, would be inexcusable,鈥� Senate majority whip John Cornyn (R) of Texas told his fellow Senators on Tuesday. 鈥淭his is something the FBI director appointed by President Obama had said he needs. He said this is their number one legislative priority. We owe it to those on the front lines of our counter-terrorism efforts to get them what they need.鈥�

Critics say that despite claims by its proponents, this bill would change little in terms of preventing attacks like Orlando.

鈥淭he FBI had the shooter under investigation twice, and , they obtained his transactional records during the course of their investigation,鈥� says Ms. Greene. 鈥淓xpanding the NSL authority doesn't mean the FBI will get access to new records; it means the FBI will access those records without any judicial approval or oversight.鈥�

Furthermore, the FBI has not once used the 鈥渓one wolf鈥� authority since its creation 12 years ago, Greene says, and it would have been useless in the Orlando case. The 鈥渓one wolf鈥� authority that today鈥檚 measure would have made permanent applies only to non-US Citizens. Born on Long Island, the Orlando shooter was an American citizen.

There have been several other attempts to pass similar measures, including an attempt to change the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Despite Senator McCain鈥檚 and Senator Burr鈥檚 confidence that they had the sixty votes necessary to pass the measure, the bill failed today in a vote of 58-38.