On May 26, 2011, President Obama authorized a four-year extension of the Patriot Act while in France using a mechanical signature. This keeps all of the previous amendments to FISA in place and allows government surveillance programs to continue.
In the same year, Sen. Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon and Sen. Mark Udall (D) of Colorado, both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, were concerned by certain government surveillance techniques and provided the public with vague warnings about certain data collection methods.
