- All five amendments, which would have restrained law enforcement from abusing the bill's powers as well as made corporations more accountable for their roles in protecting consumer information, have failed.
- The bill itself passed the Senate with a 74 - 21 vote
EFF:
- CISA's vague definitions, broad legal immunity, and new spying powers allow for a tremendous amount of unnecessary damage to users' privacy, and it’s highly unlikely that the public will learn about it
There was a time when a 'spying bill' meant international espionage, not the US Government targetting its own people.
We couldn't let The EU one up us this week.
To be fair, at this point a law plainly stating that everyone, domestically and abroad, can legally be subjected to whatever surveillance is deemed desirable by state agencies for no reason whatsoever wouldn't really change anything in practice, would it?
It will make it more difficult to fight in court. Currently, surveillance could be judged illegal, and the FISA justification thrown out. With an explicit bill, it becomes definitively legal, and fighting it requires the US Supreme Court to judge the law itself unconstitutional. It's also exceedingly difficult to get spying cases to the US Supreme Court, because getting there requires proving harm, and it's rather difficult to prove harm when you can't prove the classified spying is even taking place.