Senate set for another surveillance showdown

The annual appropriations bill to authorize funding for the intelligence community is set for a battle in the Senate, as critics charge that it enables a surveillance regime Congress had just been poised to scale back.

“This bill takes a hatchet to important protections for Americans’ liberty,” Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement late last month, following its passage out of the Senate Intelligence Committee he sits on. The Oregon Democrat added the legislation would “mean more government surveillance of Americans, less due process and less independent oversight of U.S. intelligence agencies.”