Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/521169
CLIFFOWEN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., talks with a reporter as he leaves the Capitol following his address to the Senate in Washington on Sunday. ByKenDilanian The Associated Press WASHINGTON However Congress resolves its im- passe over government surveillance, this much is clear: The National Secu- rity Agency will ultimately be out of the business of col- lecting and storing Ameri- cans' calling records. Aiming for passage Tues- day afternoon, the Senate on Monday prepared to make modest changes to a House bill that would end the collection while pre- serving other surveillance authorities. But while Con- gress debated, the law au- thorizing the collection ex- pired at midnight Sunday. The NSA had stopped gathering the records from phone companies hours be- fore the deadline. And other post-9/11 surveillance provi- sions considered more effec- tive than the phone-call col- lection program also lapsed, leading intelligence officials to warn of critical gaps. Phasingoutcollection The legislation now be- fore the Senate, known as the USA Freedom Act, would reauthorize the sur- veillance but would phase out NSA phone records col- lection over time. It passed the House overwhelmingly and is backed by President Barack Obama. Sen. Rand Paul, who doesn't believe it goes far enough in restrict- ing the government, ob- jected anew on Monday, but he can't stop a vote to end debate scheduled for Tues- day morning. If the bill becomes law over the next few days, the NSA will resume gathering the phone records but only for a transition period of six months, in the House ver- sion, or a year in the Sen- ate version. If the bill fails amid con- gressional politics, the col- lection cannot resume, pe- riod. Win for Snowden The turn of events is a vic- tory for Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who disclosed the phone records collection in 2013. Senators on the intelligence committee had been issu- ing veiled and vague warn- ings about the program for years, saying if Americans only knew how the Patriot Act was being interpreted they would be outraged. Because of Snowden, "people have some more insight into exactly how they are being spied upon and how the law has been twisted to authorize mass surveillance of people who have no connection to a crime or terrorism," said Harley Geiger, senior coun- sel with the Center for De- mocracy and Technology, an advocacy group that sup- ports the USA Freedom Act. Defeat for NSA? Still, the current legis- lation would hardly count as a defeat for the NSA, Snowden's former employer. Agency officials, including former Director Keith Alex- ander, have long said they had no problem with end- ing their collection of phone records, as long as they could continue to search the data held by the phone companies, which the leg- islation allows them to do. The USA Freedom Act doesn't address the vast majority of Snowden reve- lations, which concern NSA mass surveillance of global Internet traffic that often sweeps in American com- munication. If the legislation fails and the surveillance provisions expire, that would be a blow to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Be- sides the phone-records pro- vision, expiration of the Pa- triot Act has meant a halt in the FBI's authority to gather business records in terror- ism and espionage investi- gations, and to more easily eavesdrop on suspects who are discarding cellphones to avoid surveillance. The amendments pro- posed by Sen. Richard Burr, the North Carolina Repub- lican who chairs the intel- ligence committee, were designed, he said, to win quick House approval. One requires the director of na- tional intelligence to cer- tify that the NSA can effec- tively search records held by the phone companies in terrorism investigations. Another would require the phone companies to no- tify the government if they change their policy on how long they held the records. A third, to extend the transition from six months to 12 months, promises to be somewhat controversial. But lawmakers may face a choice between controversy and the continued expira- tion of laws used to hunt spies and terrorists. Either way, no more NSA collection of US phone records SURVEILLANCE POWERS By David Koenig The Associated Press DALLAS Airlines are try- ing to save time by speed- ing up a part of flying that sometimes creates de- lays even before the plane leaves the gate: the board- ing process. This summer travel sea- son, Delta plans to pre- load carry-on bags above passengers' seats on some flights. Southwest wants to get families seated together more quickly. Airlines have tinkered with different boarding systems almost since the days of Orville and Wilbur Wright, who tossed a coin to decide who would fly first aboard their biplane. Plenty of people have offered ideas for improvement, but no perfect method has ever emerged. Most airlines let first- class and other elite cus- tomers board first. Af- ter that, some carriers fill the rear rows and work to- ward the front. Others fill window seats and work to- ward the aisle. Some use a combination of the two. Air- lines have also tried other tricks, like letting people board early if they do not have aisle-clogging carry- on bags. It's not trivial stuff. With many flights full, anx- ious passengers know that boarding late means there might not be any room left in the overhead bin. And it matters to the air- lines. Slow boarding creates delays, which mean missed connections, unhappy cus- tomers and extra costs. Researchers from North- ern Illinois University once figured that every extra minute that a plane stands idle at the gate adds $30 in costs. About 1 in 4 U.S. flights runs at least 15 min- utes late. Multiply that by thousands of flights each day, and it quickly adds up for the industry. Delta's Early Valet service will offer to have airline em- ployees take carry-on bags at the gate and put them in the bins above passengers' assigned seats. The airline wants to see if its own work- ers can load the bins faster than passengers. The service began Mon- day on about two dozen flights, and that number is expected to rise steadily during June, Delta spokes- woman Morgan Durrant said. Early Valet will be of- fered through August on some departures from Del- ta's busiest airports — At- lanta, New York, Los Ange- les, Detroit, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and Seattle. It will be available only on flights that typically have a high number of va- cationers. Presumably, busi- ness travelers know how to board a plane efficiently. Specially tagged bags will be stowed on the plane be- fore boarding begins, Dur- rant said. Delta tested the process last summer in Atlanta and Los Angeles and saw some reduction in boarding time, Durrant said. Southwest Airlines wants to reduce complaints that families can't find seats to- gether because flights are so crowded. Unlike most airlines, Southwest does not offer as- signed seats. Instead, pas- sengers line up at the gate by group — first "A," then "B" and finally "C" — and pick their seat once they are on the plane. The sys- tem lets families board to- gether after the "A" group, but only with children up to 4. Some families pay extra for priority boarding to im- prove their odds. FLIGHT Airlines speeding up boarding process ELAINE THOMPSON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Travelers walk toward the baggage drop area for Delta airlines at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash. | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2015 4 B