US Congress quietly slips cloud-spying powers into page 2,201 of spending mega-bill

For months now, US Congress has mulled new laws to strengthen Feds' powers to access American citizens' private messages and files stored on computers overseas.

Now, rather than actually debate and refine such legislation, lawmakers have decided to tack it onto the massive 2018 Omnibus Spending Bill [PDF] and seek to pass it by the backdoor.

The 2,232-page document covers $1.3tr in government spending from now until September and, if passed, we'll avoid a federal shutdown this weekend. Despite the fact the bill was only unveiled on Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives passed it on Thursday afternoon by 256-167 votes. Now, it's over to the Senate to approve before it gets the OK from President Trump.

Buried on page 2,201 of the bill is the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD Act), which was introduced to the Senate in February and hasn't really gone anywhere. The bill would allow American law enforcement to obtain their citizens' private data from servers anywhere in the world, provided they get a US judge to approve a subpoena.

This is a crucial point, because it allows the cops and Feds to go to a court on American soil and get permission to demand information stored on systems in another country. US prosecutors tried to do just that with Microsoft – getting a New York judge to approve a request for emails stored in Ireland – and it turned into an ugly legal battle. The CLOUD Act, whether passed as is or as part of the spending bill, seeks to avoid that nightmare in future.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/23/cloud_act_spending_bill/