The White House just bought four more months for NSA reauthorization
All year, legislators have been bracing for a major fight over NSA surveillance. The 2015 bill that reauthorized the Patriot Act is set to expire on December 31st of this year. That would leave just a few weeks left to replace it and potentially add new restrictions to the NSA’s sprawling surveillance powers as part of the deal.
Now, it looks like legislators may have more time than they thought. According to a New York Times report today, the White House believes the Patriot Act’s surveillance provisions won’t expire until four months into 2018. Lawyers point to a one-year certification that was granted on April 26th of last year. If that certification is taken as a legal authorization for the FISA court overall — as White House lawyers...