US House approves bill to end bulk telephone data collection

Washington: The U.S. House of Representatives on 13th May, approved a bill that would end spy agencies` bulk collections of Americans` telephone data, setting up a potential showdown with the U.S. Senate over the programme that expires on June 1.

As voting continued, the House overwhelmingly backed the USA Freedom Act, which would end the bulk collection programme and instead give intelligence agencies access to telephone data and other records only when a court finds there is reasonable suspicion about a link to international terrorism.

The bill`s fate is much less certain in the Senate, where many key lawmakers would rather reauthorize the existing bulk data collection programme than approve the Freedom Act.