Senate bill would impose new privacy limits on accessing NSA’s surveillance data

Sens Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) released their bipartisan proposal to renew a powerful surveillance authority for collecting foreign intelligence on US soil, but with a new brake on the government’s ability to access the data. The bill would require government agencies to obtain a warrant before reviewing communications to or from Americans harvested by the National Security Agency under the surveillance authority known informally as Section 702. The measure stands little chance of passage. But, some Senate aides said, it may pressure lawmakers to insist on privacy-enhancing reforms as they look toward an end-of-year deadline to reauthorize the data-collection program — the intelligence community’s highest legislative priority.