I’m really encouraged to see that congress is actually doing something to revive the 4th amendment. It is essentially dead in the digital space right now.
The vote was pretty bipartisan, actually. There is a faction in both parties that wants this and a faction in both parties that doesn’t.
Republicans:
Yay: 123
Nay: 90
Present: 0
No Vote: 5
Democrats:
Yay: 96
Nay: 109
Present: 1
No Vote: 7
It scares me how many in both parties believe that warrantless surveillance of citizens is appropriate. Sure, maybe law enforcement can’t perform warrantless themselves, but I don’t see much difference between doing it themselves and buying it from professional data brokers.
In fact, it is almost certainly more efficient and less costly to buy the data than to develop their own systems for collection and sorting. Getting this kind fo info on suspects might not even be possible for law enforcement without purchasing it.