The Senate reauthorized a controversial FISA spying program on Friday night in the face of days of hardened opposition, casting a flurry of votes in the hours before the law expired.
A bipartisan group of privacy hawks had refused to fast-track the legislation, which renews Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but they agreed to back down after party leadership offered a handful of votes.
Though each of the proposed amendments addressed perceived shortcomings of the law, none were adopted. The Senate passed the bill, which grants the government fresh authority to spy on foreign persons, in a 60-34 vote shortly after the midnight deadline.
The scramble marks a dramatic finish to a bitter saga that for weeks reignited debate over the proper limits of government surveillance. The holdouts, an unorthodox coalition of conservatives and progressives raising civil liberties concerns, could not stop the legislation but
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