U.S. House votes unanimously to end the NSA’s bulk metadata collection

A House committee on Wednesday unanimously voted to end the National Security Agency’s bulk telephone metadata collection program. The vote by the House Judiciary Committee was 32-0. The measure moves to the full House, where its passage is uncertain. “Today’s strong, bipartisan vote by the House Judiciary Committee takes us one step closer to ending bulk collection once and for all and safeguards Americans’ civil liberties as our intelligence community keeps us safe from foreign enemies who wish us harm,” committee lawmakers said in a joint statement. Ars provided details Tuesday about the package. However, even under the measure, the NSA may still get telephone metadata records from the telcos under a different standard than what is required under the Fourth Amendment. The legislation removes the trillion-plus-record phone metadata database from the NSA’s direct control.