The Senate packed up Sunday evening without extending the expiring surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act, meaning that—for now, at least—the U.S. intelligence community is without tools that it says are vital to national security, including the National Security Agency's bulk collection of U.S. call data.
Thanks to the stubborn opposition of Sen. Rand Paul and a gamble with the clock by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that sorely backfired, the Senate failed to deal with the three controversial parts of the post-9/11 act that reached sunset the moment the calendar turned to June.
Read more... http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/the-patriot-act-just-expired-here-s-what-happens-now-20150601
