The Senate debate period on the Patriot Act ran past midnight Sunday night, effectively allowing three provisions of the controversial act to expire. Despite warnings of national security risks, "it is clear that the lapse will not come close to debilitating counterterrorism efforts," according to CNN.
The NSA's bulk data collection program was one of the provisions to expire, officially shutting down by 8 p.m. Sunday night.
The Senate is expected to restore some form of these provisions by midweek.
CNN reports:
The government loses authorities under three Patriot Act provisions.
The biggest and most controversial is the government's sweeping powers under Section 215 that allow the NSA to collect telephone metadata on millions of Americans and store that data for five years. That is, for the time being, gone.
Law enforcement officials also won't be allowed to get a roving wiretap to track terror suspects who frequently change communications devices, like phones. Instead, they will need to get individual warrants for each new device.
And third, the government loses a legal provision allowing it to use national security tools against "lone wolf" terror suspects if officials can't find a connection to a foreign terror group such as ISIS, for example. But that provision has never been used, the Justice Department confirmed.
The House overwhelmingly passed a bill, the USA Freedom Act, that would make big changes to the first, but leave the latter two provisions intact.
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