America's National Security Agency has lost its authority to bulk collect Americans' phone records.
Several measures brought in following the September 11th attacks have expired after the Senate failed to extend key provisions of the Patriot Act.
Senators had been recalled for a rare emergency meeting in an attempt to renew the controversial provisions.
Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul blocked its extension:
The White House has criticised an "irresponsible lapse" by the Senate, having previously warned that letting the powers expire would put Americans at risk.
In 2011, President Obama signed a four-year extension to key provisions of the Patriot Act, including sanctions for metadata collection, wiretapping and surveillance on terror suspects that are not affiliated with any group. These have now expired.
It will be a number of days before revised legislation can be approved, with a vote on the USA Freedom Act set to take place later this week.
The new bill will introduce more controls and transparency on the collection of telephone data, and ban the NSA from bulk collection of the data.
Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist in Washington DC. She spoke with Newstalk's Shona Murray about what will happen as a result of the Patriot Act provisions expiring:
