Last Tuesday the Senate Intelligence Committee approved the annual Intelligence Authorization Act for 2017, which is now set to be considered by the full Senate.

The bill is used to authorize funding for the intelligence community, sets policy and authorizes resources for intelligence purposes. We bring this up because the only committee member to vote against the bill was Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore), who later released a statement on why he did not vote for the bill - notably, that the FBI would be allowed to obtain Americans' email using only a national security letter, meaning it will now be able to access email without a court order.

While the intrusion of civil liberties is something that everyone lets the government get away with in today's society (as long as there are ample episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on to keep people's mind occupied), it's nice to see that at least somebody is paying attention, let alone cares enough to warn the public about what is taking place.

Here is the full statement