This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Now that some surveillance powers have lapsed, what's the next step in limiting government's ability to spy on Americans without warrant or suspicion.

Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, discusses the politics and policy of the next steps in surveillance reform.

So we all know dramatic headlines drive traffic to a news website and so you've seen

a lot of dramatic announcements in the last few days to the effect that the Patriot

Act has expired, which of course is not true.

98% of the Patriot Act is permanent and not expiring. not that have temporarily sunset because what happened on Sunday was there was a vote

77 to 17 in the Senate to move forward with the USA Freedom Act which is a modest but still significant surveillance

reform that would end bulk collection under a variety of authorities, including several

permanent ones.

Three provisions are sunsetting until they go ahead and have time to approve that.

There's the roving wiretap provision which allows them to essentially get a warrant for a target and then keep surveilling

them when they move to different phone numbers or email accounts instead

of having to go back to the court every time. There's the lone wolf provision

which they've never used actually

lets them use surveillance powers on foreigners in the US who are not

necessarily actually connected to any foreign terror group. It doesn't really seem like they've had a need for that yet.

And of course, the very controversial section 215,

which was at the heart of the now notorious NSA bulk telephony program.

And so that's all that's sun setting and it's only sun setting for a few days

until the Senate can find time to pass this USA Freedom Act, which reforms many authorities

...