U.S. Congress Quietly Authorizes 'total' phone and internet Surveillance Of All Americans.

U.S. Congress Quietly Authorizes 'total' Surveillance Of All Americans. HT: InfidelBloggers.

From this source:

Congress this week quietly passed a bill that may give unprecedented legal authority to the government's warrantless surveillance powers, despite a last-minute effort by Rep. Justin Amash to kill the bill.

The provision in question is "one of the most egregious sections of law I've encountered during my time as a representative," Amash wrote on his Facebook page.

The tea-party libertarian, who teamed up with Rep. John Conyers in an almost-successful bid to defund the National Security Agency in the wake of the Snowden revelations, warned that the provision "grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American."

The measure already passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Tuesday, and it is now on its way to the White House, where President Obama is expected to sign it.

The objections from Amash and others arose from language in the bill's Section 309, which includes a phrase to allow for "the acquisition, retention, and dissemination" of U.S. phone and Internet data. 

That passage will give unprecedented statutory authority to allow for the surveillance of private communications that currently exists only under a decades-old presidential decree, known as Executive Order 12333.

"If this hadn't been snuck in, I doubt it would have passed," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who voted against the bill. "A lot of members were not even aware that this new provision had been inserted last-minute. Had we been given an additional day, we may have stopped it."

Lofgren said she believed the Senate Intelligence Committee was the source of the language. The panel did not respond to requests for comment.

Lofgren also said the language was "the exact opposite of what the House passed this summer."

She was referring to an amendment she championed that would have required the NSA to obtain a warrant before reading Americans' private messages that were collected through a program intended to target foreigners. "Congress is authorizing something very questionable constitutionally," Lofgren added. Hmmm....Every Year the worst laws and regulations are passed around the Christmas period. Read the full story here.