14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, the US Senate voted to pass the USA Freedom Act, a law that greatly reduces the NSA's spying capabilities and, most importantly, disallows its mass phone data collection program.
The bill entered Senate for voting last week and needed to pass two rounds of voting to be approved. It survived the first stage called the Cloture with a vote of 77 to 17, but the final vote was delayed by a few days by Senator Paul Rand of Kentucky.
This week, the final voting procedures ended and the USA Freedom Act was approved with 67 to 32 votes, effectively putting a muzzle on the NSA's internal spying capabilities.
The USA Freedom Act needs now only to be signed by US President Barack Obama, which he'll undoubtedly do since he was a firm supporter of the law in the first place.
What will happen after the President signs the USA Freedom Act into law
When this happens, the USA Freedom Act will replace some of the Patriot Act provisions put in place back in 2001 after the September 11 attacks, which gave the NSA, FBI and other investigatory institutions authority to spy on US citizens.
The new law changes how the NSA works, mainly by shutting down the phone records surveillance program, and forcing all future investigations to go through the regular procedures of obtaining a warrant first.
This new version of the law looks awfully similar to the Investigatory Powers Bill that the UK is trying to put in place right now, forcing phone and Internet providers to store client communication metadata and allowing government agencies to access it based on a warrant.
While not entirely similar, the UK government might also use the vote on the USA Freedom Act to justify the need for a similar law in its country, and help push their version of the law through British regulatory institutions.
Edward Snowden is probably having a round of vodka with his friends in Russia right now, and industry tech giants are sure to be happy as well, since user trust has considerably decreased in many companies like Google or Facebook after the NSA program leaked.
"I welcome the Senate’s passage of the USA Freedom Act, which I will sign when it reaches my desk." —@POTUS pic.twitter.com/dCUcGXsi35
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 2, 2015