Title: What is the USA FREEDOM Act? What's So Free About It?
Headings: What is the USA FREEDOM Act? What’s So Free About It?
What is the USA FREEDOM Act? What’s So Free About It?
Congressional Support for the Freedom Act
What Does the Freedom Act Do?
Final Thoughts

Content: Congressional Support for the Freedom Act
Obama pushed the Freedom Act as an improvement to the Patriot Act and as a way to reassure the public that the government wasn’t after their data, even if the latter claim wasn’t true. The act had broad bipartisan support in the Senate: 23 Republicans, 43 Democrats and one independent voted for it. Only one Democrat, Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin opposed it. Thirty Republicans opposed it, including Orrin Hatch of Utah, John McCain of Arizona and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. One independent, Bernie Sanders, voted against it. Obama signed the Freedom Act into law on June 2, 2015. Given how many Democrats came out in favor of net neutrality when Ajit Pai’s FCC tried to ax it, it’s hard to understand why so many supported this bill, which falls short on similar grounds. Since 2015, many things have changed in the American political landscape. Maybe those Democratic senators thought the bill would do more to protect individual security and privacy.