Key Parts of Patriot Act Expire Temporarily as Senate Moves Toward Limits on Spying

BREAKING NEWS Monday, June 1, 2015 12:06 AM EDT

Key Parts of Patriot Act Expire Temporarily as Senate Moves Toward Limits on Spying The government’s authority to sweep up vast quantities of phone records in the hunt for terrorists expired at 12:01 a.m. Monday after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, blocked an extension of the program during an extraordinary and at times caustic Sunday session of the Senate. Still, the Senate signaled that it was ready to curtail the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection program with likely passage this week of legislation that would shift the storage of telephone records from the government to the phone companies. The House overwhelmingly passed that bill last month. Senators voted, 77 to 17, on Sunday to take up the House bill. READ MORE » http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/us/politics/senate-nsa-surveillance-usa-freedom-act.html?emc=edit_na_20150601