From Yahoo! News:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing forward with an amendment that would let the FBI collect records on Americans’ web-browsing and search histories without a warrant this week.
McConnell proposed the amendment as part of the renewal of the 2001 Patriot Act, The Daily Beast first reported. The Senate is voting on amendments this week.
The McConnell amendment would let Department of Justice officials — overseen by Attorney General Bill Barr — look through anyone’s browsing history without the approval of a judge if they deem the browsing history relevant to an investigation. It blocks the FBI from accessing the “content” of people’s web-browsing history but would let the FBI access records detailing which sites and search terms people entered.
The proposal has drawn backlash from a bipartisan group of senators, as well as from both liberal and conservative civil-liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans for Prosperity.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and Republican Sen. Steve Daines jointly proposed an amendment that would require the FBI to obtain a warrant before accessing people’s web-browsing history — but their amendment failed by just one vote Wednesday, bringing warrantless searches of web-browsing history one step closer to becoming law.