NSA winds down phone record collecting

The US National Security Agency has begun winding down its collection and storage of US phone records.

The move came after the Senate failed to agree on a way forward to change or extend the once-secret program ahead of its expiration at the end of the month.

Barring an eleventh-hour compromise when the Senate returned to session on Sunday, a much-debated provision of the counterterrorism Patriot Act - and some other lesser known surveillance tools - were due to end.

The change would also have a major effect on the FBI, which uses the Patriot Act and the other provisions to gather records in investigations into suspected spies and terrorists.

The data collection program, in which the National Security Agency sweeps up vast amounts of US telephone records and business information, was exposed two years ago by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who is now a fugitive in Russia.

In a chaotic scene early on Saturday, Senate Republicans blocked a House bill known as the USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the NSA's bulk collection but preserved its ability to search the records held by phone companies on a case-by-case basis.

The bill was backed by US President Barack Obama, House Republicans and the nation's top law enforcement and intelligence officials.

It fell just three votes short of the 60 needed to pass. All the "no" votes but one were cast by Republicans, some of whom said they thought the USA Freedom Act didn't go far enough to help the NSA maintain its capabilities.

If Senate Republican leaders were counting on extending the current law and continuing the negotiations, they miscalculated.

Democrats and libertarian-minded Republicans refused to go along. A bill to grant a two-month extension of the law failed, and senators objected to each attempt by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to offer a short-term extension.

Reuters - AP