SPY HARD

Obama Signs NSA Limits Into Law

First time since 9/11.

On Tuesday night, President Obama signed into law a measure to rein in the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone data. The USA Freedom Act will mainly take away storage of so-called metadata from the hands of the NSA and leave it with telephone companies, which could be compelled to turn that data over to the government. The Senate passed the measure earlier Tuesday, skipping over Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed amendments, which would’ve torn out a provision requiring greater transparency from the secret court that authorizes domestic surveillance. Last month, several former senior intelligence officials told The Daily Beast the bill to limit the NSA’s power is still a “big win” for the agency.