The Obama administration announced Monday that the National Security Agency’s controversial phone surveillance program has been extended another 90 days, nearly a year after President Obama vowed to end the bulk collection of Americans’ data.
“The government filed an application with the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] to reauthorize the existing program for 90 days, and that the FISC issued an order approving the government’s application,” said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Attorney General Eric Holder in a joint statement. “The order issued on Dec. 4, 2014, expires on Feb. 27, 2015.”
The quiet extension of the program, which fell under scrutiny after leaks by former government contractor Edward Snowden, comes as Congress struggles to unite behind reforms to the NSA’s mass surveillance techniques.
Noting Obama’s promise to end the bulk collection of metadata, civil liberties groups have called on the president to stop requesting extensions of the program through the FISC. However, the White House says it needs bipartisan legislation before scrapping the practice.
The program has been extended four times since the president pledged to end it.
Last month, legislation that would have halted the government’s bulk collection of phone data failed to reach the 60-vote threshold to make it through the upper chamber. The bill needed two more votes for passage, and a Republican Senate in 2015 is seen as even less likely to pursue similar reforms.
