The US Congress approved a bill legalizing espionage of the special services.

On December 11, both houses of the US Congress approved an amendment to the law on appropriations for US intelligence for the 2015 fiscal year. This amendment contains the so-called "section 309" which, in particular, allows the "collection, storage and distribution" of information on private telephone conversations and electronic correspondence of citizens, and without the sanction of the court.

Republican Congressman Justin Emech argues that "section 309" was inserted into the harmless amendment of the law on changing the funding of US intelligence at the last moment. Before voting on the amendment, he sent out an open call to Congressmen not to vote for it, since the amendment too much expands the powers of the special services. But the call did not affect the vote and it was adopted with 325 votes in favor and 100 against.

It is interesting that, in contrast to Snowden's revelations, this fact did not cause widespread discussion in American society. For example, a petition on the White House website calling for a veto on this bill in 11 days gained only 11,000 signatures.