WASHINGTON- A US court overseeing spy agencies has renewed the government's authority to carry out a controversial phone surveillance program for another three months.
Reauthorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect "metadata" in bulk about phone calls without warrants which includes the numbers called and call duration.
The House of Representatives passed the bill earlier this year but the bill is currently stuck in the Senate.
"The government has sought a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program," the US Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.