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Senate Passes PATRIOT Act Reauthorization without Key Privacy Protection
After strong bipartisan support for the Daines-Wyden amendment in the Senate, the House of Representatives must stop Attorney General Bill Barr from spying on Americans' online activity without a warrant.
WASHINGTON
Today, the Senate passed the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act (H.R. 6172), which would reauthorize three expired Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorities, including Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Yesterday, the Senate adopted the Lee-Leahy amendment, which established a meaningful privacy protection for the public, religious groups, and the media.
However, the Senate failed to adopt the Daines-Wyden amendment, which would have made clear the government may not use Section 215 to surveil internet browsing and search histories without a warrant. Today, the Senate also failed to adopt the Paul amendment, which would have prohibited the use of FISA, as well as surveillance conducted under claimed Article II power, against people in the United States or in proceedings against them.
Demand Progress Education Fund and the FreedomWorks Foundation have released a number of materials on Section 215--including visual and written histories of how the government has repeatedly misused this specific authority--at www.Section215.org.
Demand Progress worked closely with leaders in the House and Senate to fight for stronger privacy protections, and led a broad coalition of groups in support of these privacy amendments. On Monday, we released a coalition letter from 36 groups from across the political spectrum--led by Demand Progress, ACLU, and FreedomWorks--urging support for the privacy-protective amendments. Demand Progress also has led a netroots coalition campaign that has generated over 70,000 constituent letters and signatures to lawmakers in the past week in support of the amendments.
The following statement can be attributed to Sean Vitka, senior policy counsel at Demand Progress:
"No committee of jurisdiction marked up or passed the underlying legislation, which remains unsupportable in its current form. Yesterday's votes on the Daines-Wyden and Lee-Leahy amendments make one thing abundantly clear: Members of Congress want to do more to protect their constituents' privacy.
"It is now critically important that the House of Representatives add the Daines-Wyden amendment to the underlying bill. Attorney General Bill Barr personally approved the first known bulk surveillance program targeting people in the United States. That DEA program operated for over two decades, collecting billions of records, but was only publicly revealed two years after it was shut down, in 2015. Just last year, an Inspector General report concluded that Barr initiated the DEA program without first reviewing its legality.
"We cannot wait to find out what Bill Barr's second attempt at a mass-surveillance program looks like, and this is all the more true while Donald Trump occupies the White House. Now that we know a filibuster-proof majority of senators supports prohibiting the government from using the PATRIOT Act to spy on our online activity without a warrant, it would be dangerously irresponsible for the House to pass this reauthorization without that protection."
Demand Progress amplifies the voice of the people -- and wields it to make government accountable and contest concentrated corporate power. Our mission is to protect the democratic character of the internet -- and wield it to contest concentrated corporate power and hold government accountable.
LATEST NEWS
'He's Scared... and He Should Be,' Platner Says of Trump Calling Him Worst Person to Ever Run for Office
"Donald Trump and all of his depraved billionaire friends who think that they can get away with disgusting acts... that they're above the law, they're about to find out that they're not," said the Maine Democrat.
Jun 12, 2026
Just a few days after winning Maine's Democratic primary for US Senate by over 52 points, Graham Platner on Friday shared a short video of his reaction to Republican President Donald Trump calling him a "thug" and "worse than any human being that's ever run for office, probably."
In the video posted on social media, Platner holds a laptop and watches 20 seconds of the president's comments, chuckling, before responding: "Wow! I got to say, being called a thug and the worst person to ever run for office by Donald Trump might be the highest compliment that I have ever received."
Since Trump's Wednesday attack on Platner in the wake of his decisive primary victory, critics have pointed out that the president has used his position to enrich himself and his family while gutting programs for working families and cutting taxes for the rich. He was also found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, and reportedly named over a million times in files related to his former friend, convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
"He's also right: There might not be a lot of other people like me who've run for office," Platner said. "You know, people that actually serve their country, fought in this nation's wars, came home, started the business, lived down here in the real world, have spent years and years being involved at the local level in the community, and then one day decided to go run for US Senate."
When Platner launched his campaign last August, he named "the oligarchy"—the billionaires, and the politicians who do their bidding, including Maine's Republican Sen. Susan Collins—as "the enemy." The combat veteran and oyster farmer quickly won support from progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and Mainers across the state, who have stood by him amid media and public scrutiny of his old Reddit posts, a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol that he's now covered up, and his personal relationships.
Platner's primary challenger, Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her campaign in April, citing a lack of financial resources. The seat long held by Collins is a key target for Democrats, who aim to reclaim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, to continue fighting against Trump—and potentially impeach him for a historic third time.
According to Platner, the reason Trump is now attacking him personally, less than five months away from the general election, "is that he's scared... He knows that we're coming after him. He knows that when we win this election, when we take this kind of politics down to Washington, when we retake this seat for working-class Mainers, when we retake the Senate with fighting Democrats who actually want to hold Trump and his cronies and all their corruption accountable, he knows that's coming—and it's got him shaking in his boots."
"And he should be, because we are coming, because we're building something here in Maine the likes of which has not been seen before. We are really building a true, broad-based, working-class coalition, to build power the old-fashioned way, organizing people and taking it," he continued. "Taking it to fight for a better future."
"The Epstein class... Donald Trump and all of his depraved billionaire friends who think that they can get away with disgusting acts, think that because of their money and their power and their wealth and their influence that they're above the law, they're about to find out that they're not, and it's got them terrified," he added. "And they should be."
Platner's video came on the heels of The Maine Monitor publishing an analysis of campaign finance data showing that nearly 100 billionaires and their spouses have contributed to Collins' reelection bid so far, dumping nearly $10 million into her campaign committee and political action committees supporting her.
"While Susan Collins' campaign is backed by billionaire donors, our campaign is built on a movement funded by the people, with an average donation of $26," said Ben Chin, Platner's campaign manager. "The establishment can bring it on—they cannot defeat the will of working Mainers, 15,000+ volunteers, and a campaign powered by small-dollar donors from nearly every ZIP code in Maine."Keep ReadingShow Less
As Elon Musk Becomes a Trillionaire, Report Highlights 'Darker Realities' of His Texas SpaceX Fiefdom
"Mr. Musk’s bid for planetary reach is about to be turbocharged with billions of dollars of rocket fuel. Who will suffer the fallout if it all blows up?"
Jun 12, 2026
Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire on Friday, as his private space exploration firm SpaceX became a publicly traded company with a market cap of $2 trillion despite reporting negative net income for two of the last three years.
To mark this occasion, The New York Times published an essay by journalist Amy Gamerman, who has spent the last several months documenting life in Starbase, Texas, a city built by Musk to house SpaceX employees.
Gamerman wrote that it's best to think of Starbase as a corporate fiefdom that has been granted extraordinary treatment by Texas' state government.
"One new Texas law makes interfering with Starbase’s operations potentially punishable with jail time," the journalist explained. "Another allows the company to shut down the highway into town and to the beach at the mayor’s discretion. Another shields SpaceX, and by extension Starbase, from lawsuits by neighbors over nuisance caused by its rockets."
While the community of nearly 600 people appears idyllic, Gamerman found there are several "darker realities" lying beneath the surface, with one resident who wished to remain anonymous saying that Starbase is "like living in a dictatorship" where people fear raising concerns will lead to retaliation by the company.
Another disturbing aspect outlined in Gamerman's essay is the way that Starbase seemingly operates outside the laws and norms of the rest of society.
For example, the city has now erected electronic gates on every single road leading to Starbase Village, the main center of the city where SpaceX employees live and that is cut off from other parts of the community.
"Those who live outside the gates of Starbase Village... often feel shut out," wrote Gamerman. "Amber Pompa said her father, Homer Pompa, a disabled veteran who lives near Starbase Village, has no access to the restaurants or any other buildings there. And as Starbase expands, new gates have gone up in other parts of town."
Gamerman also highlighted the story of Jose Luis Bautista Jr., a 25-year-old construction worker who died in an accident in Starbase last month. When the nearby city of Brownsville dispatched an ambulance to take Bautista to a hospital, Starbase officials denied it access and said their own emergency medical services were handling the situation.
The incident, noted Gamerman, is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Taking a look at the broader picture, Gamerman expressed concern that Musk becoming a trillionaire could allow him to expand his vision of billionaire-owned cities across the US.
"Mr. Musk’s bid for planetary reach is about to be turbocharged with billions of dollars of rocket fuel," the journalist concluded. "Who will suffer the fallout if it all blows up?"
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Under Healthcare 'Dystopia' Envisioned by Trump, Cash-Strapped Patients Would Take Out Loans From Insurers
"This could ruin people's finances, while creating a financial incentive for insurers to deny coverage," said one Democratic congresswoman.
Jun 12, 2026
After the Republican Party's decision to terminate subsidies that had significantly reduced healthcare costs under the Affordable Care Act for 22 million people, the White House is considering a new way to—officials claim—"help" Americans who face massive medical bills, either due to high-deductible plans that don't cover routine costs or because of emergency expenses.
The proposal, though, could just shift "who [the patients] owe the debt to," as one doctor and researcher told The New York Times, which reported Thursday on the Trump administration's proposal to allow people to take out loans directly from their health insurance companies when they can't afford to pay a hospital or doctor's office out of pocket—and then pay the insurance company back, likely with interest.
"Hard to top this level of dystopia," said one writer in response to the Times report. "Have health insurance through the ACA? The Trump administration is going to turn your health insurer into a loan shark you borrow money from if you can't afford to pay your portion of medical procedures."
As the newspaper was reported, the provision is buried in a 1,121-page final rule issued last month regarding how the ACA will be regulated next year.
The Trump administration is planning to significantly expand the number of Americans who are eligible for high-deductible "catastrophic" health insurance plans that provide no coverage for day-to-day medical expenses.
"We note that multiyear and 1-year catastrophic plans may be able to offer relief from the high deductible and maximum annual limitation on cost sharing through other mechanisms," reads the final rule. "For example, issuers of catastrophic plans could consider financing the deductible by providing enrollees a loan."
Currently, the average annual deductible for people insured under the ACA is nearly $4,000, and about 40% of enrollees this year have "Bronze" plans, which have an out-of-pocket maximum that's over $10,000 for an individual, likely leaving many people having to pay thousands of dollars in medical expenses despite having coverage.
By 2028, as Common Dreams reported earlier this year, catastrophic plans with lower premiums could have deductibles as high as $31,000 for families.
The plan to shift more people onto expensive plans that provide less coverage for day-to-day medical care—and to push patients to take out loans from their insurers—comes as about one-third of Americans, even those with insurance, report skipping meals or cutting back on other expenses to afford their medical bills.
The Times reported that at least one major health insurer—UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest—is already equipped to start lending patients money to cover unexpected medical bills. The company operates a bank that administers loans to doctors and offers health savings accounts.
Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) said the latest proposal from the White House shows that President Donald Trump "is destroying healthcare from all sides."
The advocacy group Protect Our Care said the "suggestion" buried in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' final rule "is not only out of touch, it is cruel—accruing medical debt only adds to families’ financial burdens."
“While working families drown in the high cost of living, the Trump administration’s answer to the healthcare affordability crisis they created is to throw people an anchor made of medical debt and call it relief," said Leslie Dach, chair of Protect Our Care. "Trump and Republicans had a simple, popular fix sitting right in front of their faces—extending the ACA tax credits—but they killed it anyway, triggering premiums to double, triple, or even quadruple for millions of working families, all to make billionaires and big corporations even richer."
"Americans are being bankrupted by crushing medical debt, and this administration isn’t lifting a finger to help—it’s busy shoveling more people into that hole," said Dach. "Voters will remember this foolishness at the ballot box in November, just you wait.”
Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, which advocates for a universal, single-payer healthcare system for New York state, suggested the proposal makes the latest case for a federal, government-funded healthcare program similar to those in other wealthy countries, which would end the healthcare profit motive by expanding the existing Medicare system to the entire US population.
"Letting Americans take out loans to afford healthcare forces Americans deeper into debt and drives up profits for the health insurance industry," said D'Arrigo. "Abolish the health insurance industry. Demand Medicare for All."
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