# USA FREEDOM Act **The 2015 law that ended the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records — the one surveillance reform the [[Snowden Revelations]] actually produced.** The Senate passed it 67–32 on June 2, 2015, a day after [[Rand Paul]]'s blockade let [[USA PATRIOT Act]] Section 215 lapse, and [[Barack Obama]] signed it that night. Bulk collection ended at midnight on November 29, 2015, after a 180-day transition. ## What it did - **Banned bulk collection under Section 215** and other authorities. The government instead had to ask phone companies for records matching a "specific selection term" approved by the [[FISA Court]]. - **Created an amicus panel** at the FISA Court, so that someone other than the government could argue novel questions in a court that had heard only one side. - **Required declassification review of significant FISA Court opinions** and annual transparency reporting on orders and targets. ## What it didn't do It left [[FISA Section 702]] — the authority behind [[PRISM]] and [[Upstream Collection]] — untouched, and it did not reach collection overseas under [[Executive Order 12333]]. The replacement call-records program it created ran into its own compliance problems and was shut down; Section 215 itself expired in March 2020 and has not been renewed. Senate Majority Leader [[Mitch McConnell]] tried to weaken the bill with amendments on the floor; they were defeated. Supporters such as New America called it "the strongest new regulation of America's intelligence agencies since the spying scandals of the 70s," while conceding it was a compromise. ## KB Significance **Scandal produces reform, reform produces the next authority.** The FREEDOM Act is the vault's best example of the cycle described in [[Intelligence Oversight Architecture]]: a leak forces a narrow fix to the exposed program, and the larger authorities next to it survive and grow. Section 215's bulk program ended; Section 702 was renewed three more times and in 2024 *expanded*. **The declassification requirement still matters.** The 2026 fight over the secret March 17, 2026 FISA Court opinion (see [[FISA Section 702 Renewal 2026]]) is a fight over the kind of disclosure this law was meant to guarantee. ## See Also - [[USA PATRIOT Act]] — Section 215, the authority it curtailed - [[Snowden Revelations]] · [[Edward Snowden]] — the disclosures that forced it - [[FISA Court]] — the court it opened to amici - [[FISA Section 702]] — what it left alone