U.S. lawmakers may very well be one step closer to bringing across-the-board U.S. government phone surveillance to an end. The House of Representatives is expected to vote Wednesday on an amendment to next year’s defense appropriations bill that would defund the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of people’s phone metadata not under investigation for international terrorism or foreign intelligence. According to the revised amendment’s summary available on the House Rules Committee website, the amendment “bars authority for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act.” It further “bars the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the...
