Patrick Leahy - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• US Senate passes bill to rein in NSA phone dragnet

  The U.S. Senate has passed legislation intended to rein in the National Security Agency's bulk collection of domestic telephone records, sending the bill to President Barack Obama for his signature.

• Senate to return early to debate phone dragnet

  The U.S. Senate will return early from a week-long recess in a last-ditch effort to extend provisions of the Patriot Act that the National Security Agency have used to collect millions of domestic telephone records over the past nine years.

• US lawmakers introduce two bills to protect email privacy

  A long-standing effort to extend privacy protections to email and other data in the cloud got new life Thursday when U.S. lawmakers introduced not one, but two bills to reform the country's electronic privacy laws.

• Democrats' bill would ban paid prioritization by ISPs

  Democrats in the U.S. Congress have wasted no time in resurrecting a debate over net neutrality rules, with lawmakers introducing a bill that would ban paid traffic priority agreements between broadband providers and Web content producers.

• US Senate fails to move forward on NSA reform bill

  The U.S. Senate has voted against a bill that would rein in the National Security Agency's bulk collection of telephone records within the country, possibly killing any NSA reforms until next year.

• DOJ, intelligence official support bill ending bulk phone collection

  Two top officials in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, including the director of national intelligence, have voiced support for a Senate bill that would end the U.S. National Security Agency's bulk collection of domestic telephone records.

• Senator pushes new version of bill to limit NSA phone records collection

  U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy has introduced a new version of a bill to rein in the National Security Agency's bulk collection of U.S. phone records in an effort to strengthen legislation that passed the House of Representatives this year.

• Senate passes bill allowing mobile phone owners to unlock devices

  The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that would allow mobile phone customers to unlock their devices for the purposes of switching carriers.

• Senate committee approves mobile phone unlocking bill

  The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve legislation that would allow mobile phone owners to unlock their devices for the purposes of switching carriers.

• Groups pressure US lawmakers with NSA surveillance scorecard

  U.S. lawmakers got a report card on Friday: they've been graded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups on whether they are effectively reining in the National Security Agency's surveillance programs.

• US lawmakers introduce bill banning paid prioritization online

  A group of U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation that would prohibit broadband providers from charging Web content generators for priority traffic management.

• Senator scraps legislation targeting patent trolls

  Legislation aimed at curbing so-called patent trolls may be dead until 2015 after the chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee pulled the bill off the committee's agenda, citing a lack of consensus.

• US development agency defends its Twitter-like service in Cuba

  The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Thursday defended its work in setting up a Twitter-like service in Cuba to promote democracy in the communist country.

• More than 4,000 groups sign up to protest NSA

  More than 4,000 groups and websites have signed on to support a day of protest against U.S. National Security Agency surveillance programs, scheduled for Tuesday.

• Senator pushes for an end to NSA phone records program

  Senator Patrick Leahy questioned how the Constitution allows the National Security Agency's bulk collection of U.S. telephone records and repeated his calls for President Barack Obama's administration to end the program during a hearing Wednesday.