January 4, 2013 4:00PM 

# Our Rushed Debate on NSA Spying 

By [Julian Sanchez](https://www.cato.org/people/julian-sanchez) 

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While the news media were obsessing over the Fiscal Cliff, President Obama quietly signed a five-year reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act, which the Senate hastily approved after defeating a string of common-sense amendments that would have provided a modicum of additional protection for the civil liberties of Americans.

Our resident video ninjas, Caleb Brown and Austin Bragg, assembled this short video explaining just what happened using footage from that all-too-brief Senate debate—and revealing how little interest Congress seems to have in protecting us from dragnet surveillance by the National Security Agency.

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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