Senate advances bill to renew NSA spying program

The US Senate has advanced a bill to extend the controversial surveillance program by the National Security Agency for another six years.

The vote on Tuesday came amid ongoing criticism of the porgam following the disclosures of classified surveillance secrets by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.

The bill just cleared the procedural 60-vote threshold needed to restrict debate in the Senate and it is expected that the legislation will earn the simple majority required to officially pass through the chamber sometime later this week.

The measure easily passed the House of Representatives last week and is expected to be signed into law by President Donald Trump, who posted mixed signals on Twitter.

The authorization, formally known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), will expire on Friday unless the Senate and Trump sign off on it, though intelligence official believe it could continue until April.

Shortly before the 60-38 vote, Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, described the NSA program as “the single most important national security tool we have in the United States.”

Privacy advocates say the program enables the NSA and other intelligence agencies to gather data belonging to Americans in a way that affronts the US Constitution.

“Without additional meaningful constraints, Congress is allowing the government to use information collected without a warrant against Americans in domestic court proceedings,” Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, vocal opponents of the legislation, wrote in a letter to Senate colleagues last week.

The NSA has been collecting phone calls, texts and emails of the American people as well as those of other nationals.