Article snippet: The potential end to a controversial National Security Agency phone records collection program is energizing privacy groups and lawmakers who have long called for stricter limits on domestic surveillance powers. A top national security aide to House Minority Leader MORE (R-Calif.) recently revealed on a podcast that, for the past six months, the spy agency hasn't used a program that gathers metadata on domestic text messages and phone calls. He predicted that the Trump administration might not ask to renew the program, which is set to expire this year. The aide’s remarks were followed by reports from The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal that the NSA is in the process of shuttering the program. Some privacy activists say these recent developments have strengthened their hand as they prepare to make their case on Capitol Hill, where they’ll argue that elements of the USA Freedom Act -- Congress's response to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's bombshell disclosures in 2013 -- should not be reauthorized. “[Privacy activists] always have thought that the program should end, that there was no basis for it, but it’s even easier to make that decision because it’s been defunct for the past six months,” Daniel Schuman, policy director at privacy group Demand Progress, told The Hill. If Congress allows for the expiration of the surveillance program’s legal authority, often referred to as Section 215, it would likely defuse what many predicted would be a major con... Link to the full article to read more