“But, the bigger surprise: even with a deadline looming, warnings of impending doom from surveillance justifiers, and pressure from Senate leadership, the extension received less support than the reform bill.
In other words, more senators believe that the prospect of completely losing some surveillance authority is less damaging than allowing the government to continue its current surveillance practices.
This is a seismic shift from where our country was just years ago. To put it in context, in 2011, a four-year extension easily passed both chambers and was barely a blip in the news cycle.”
Via The Patriot Act’s Time is Up @ American Civil Liberties Union.