Just before the deadline expired last week, the Obama administration renewed its authority to collect in bulk the telephone records of millions of Americans.
The Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence informed the public on Monday about the reauthorization, which came from the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on December 4th.
“Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the importance of maintaining the capabilities of the telephony metadata program, the government has sought a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program,” the agencies’ joint statement read.
In order to continue the NSA’s call records dragnet under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the administration must obtain a new court order every 90 days.
Continued collection and storage of Americans’ call records by the government run counter to President Obama’s stated preference to leave collection and storage up to telecommunications companies. However, since the president recommended this new approach in March, he has continued to seek authorization from the FISC to keep the program running until Congress approves of changes to the program.
Legislation to reform the telephone metadata program failed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate last month, but the White House intends to renew the effort next year.
“The Administration welcomes the opportunity to work with the new Congress to implement the changes the President has called for,” the Justice Department and ODNI said in their statement.
This latest authorization expires on February 27th, 2015. Four months later, section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act itself expires, which could force an end to the program. However, a former lawyer for the Senate Intelligence Committee told the New York Times that the FISA court could continue reauthorizing the program beyond its expiration, as long as prior terrorism cases are still open.
“No one should believe the present program will disappear solely because of the sunset,” he told the newspaper.
