In the nearly two years since the first of the Ed Snowden revelations, Congress has proceeded to carefully avoid fixing anything. There have been some votes that have come close, and some attempts to reform the program, but, in part because nothing gets through Congress, nothing has really happened. This is even though the author of the PATRIOT Act, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, has said that the Act is being misinterpreted to allow mass surveillance and while President Obama himself has called for the program to be changed (though he has failed to step up and stop it himself, even though he has the power to do so).

As we‘ve mentioned a few times, however, much of this comes to a head in the next month and a half — because Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act officially sunsets as of June 1st — so if Congress doesn‘t pass legislation renewing it, the program dies.