On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill to limit NSA’s mass surveillance.  The USA Freedom Act has the support of some groups pressing for reform which characterize it as an important first step in curbing the government’s bulk collection of private records, while noting that more still needs to be done.  See http://newamerica.net/node/109858.

Other organizations express concerns that protections that had been included in previous versions, especially “critical government reporting requirements,” have been dropped in the latest version.  See http://www.pogo.org/blog/2014/05/revised-usa-freedom-act-lacks-transparency.html.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D – Vt.), one of the sponsors of the original bill, indicated that he would press to restore the missing protections.