The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is drawing attention to an amendment about to be voted on that would forbid the use of appropriated funds for conducting warrantless electronic searches on U.S. citizens. This would make it difficult for the National Security Agency to use its copious funding -- estimated by the Washington Post to be around $52.6 billion annually -- to support such surveillance programs.
Though the amendment to House Resolution 4870, the 2015 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, is designed to make it harder to do arbitrary data collection on U.S. citizens, it doesn't make such searches flat-out impossible. It specifically allows searches for corporations, people who are the subject of an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or situations where "the life or safety of such United States person is threatened and the information is sought for the purpose of assisting that person" -- e.g., a missing-persons situation.
InforWorldl/ full read here/http://www.infoworld.com/t/internet-privacy/congress-could-gut-funds-nsa-bulk-searches-244673
