Following a recent Senate vote at Friday midnight, the NSA has begun preparing to close its mass surveillance programs.
The legal basis of these programs states that the Patriot Act, expires at the end of the month. So lawmakers were called upon to decide whether the agency's mass surveillance systems would remain and how long they would be able to intervene.
The Senate has failed to pass a replacement bill, the US Freedom Act, but also another proposed by McConnell (R-KY), Chairman of the Majority Senate, who wanted to extend the program as it stands.
"OR procedure it has already begun.”
As a response to the latest events, officials said that NSA should begin taking steps to shut down mass surveillance programs, such as the controversial collection of “metadata” from millions of phone calls.
According to Los Angeles Times, an agency official reports that "that process has begun."
After Congress could not agree to restrict or renew the Patriot Act, the NSA is forced to end programs based on the bill, originally passed in the wake of 11's September attacks.
Many see the Freedom Act as the most viable solution. It extends extensively to key parts of the Patriot Act, but with some limitations and commitments.
In particular, it will modify the 215 section, which has been used in broad interpretations (recently considered illegal by the Court of Appeal) to justify NSA's mass surveillance programs.
The House passed the bill last month, but three votes in the Senate fell short.
An extraordinary last-minute meeting is scheduled for Sunday, May 31, to try to pass a bill before the end of the deadline coming on June 1st.