On Wednesday, Senator Susan Collins voted against a proposed amendment to an expansion of the PATRIOT Act that would have required federal intelligence investigators to show probable cause before accessing an individual’s web browsing information and search history.
To advance, the amendment required support from 60 senators. It fell one vote short.
Both parties were split on the measure, with Republicans and Democrats voting both for and against the amendment. Independent Angus King of Maine was one of the 59 votes in favor.
And it came down to one vote from Susan Collins in the Senate. Argh. https://t.co/BhDzcJ1zCG
— Shenna Bellows (@shennabellows) May 14, 2020
“This kills me because in Maine privacy has always been a bipartisan issue,” state Senator Shenna Bellows (D-Manchester), a former director of the Maine ACLU who ran against Collins in 2014, wrote on Twitter following the vote. “We have some of the strongest internet privacy laws in the country!”
The amendment, sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.), was an attempt to modify legislation put forward by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that would expressly permit the FBI to collect records on Americans’ web browsing and search histories without a warrant.
“The warrantless collection of Americans’ web browsing history offers endless opportunities for abuse,” said Wyden. “Donald Trump has called for investigations of his political enemies. Attorney General Barr has injected himself into investigations that affect the personal or political interests of Donald Trump.”
“All it would take is for some innocent American’s web browsing history to be deemed relevant to one of those investigations, and the government could start collecting it,” he said.
Photo: Drew Angerer, Getty Images
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