Comment on Deal to curb US intelligence elusive as June deadline nears

Washington (AFP) - Many US lawmakers and an array of interest groups want to rein in the government's surveillance programs, aware of public backlash that began with bombshell leaks two years ago.With a deadline looming less than a month away, however, consensus on how to curb data collection has proven elusive.The coming weeks are critical because of a June 1 expiration of a key section of the US Patriot Act which has been used as a legal basis for much of the vast surveillance carried out by the National Security Agency.Two years after the sweeping data leaked in documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden stunned Americans and US allies, momentum appears to be growing for reforms.But privacy advocates are divided on the steps to be taken.Many activists are pinning their hopes on the USA Freedom Act, set to go before the House of Representatives in the coming week after a bipartisan 25-2 approval in committee.The bill would end bulk collection of Americans' phone and Internet data under section 215 of the Patriot Act, and would open some of the secretive practices of data collection.- Curbing bulk data sweep -"These are steps in the right direction," said Harley Geiger at the Center for Democracy and Technology, which supports the bill."It would end the nationwide collection of Americans' communications."The bill has the support of the House leadership and many key players in the tech sector such as the Internet Association and Reform Government Surveillance groups, which include Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and Google.But some civil liberties groups and activists have declined to support the measure, saying the bill would make only modest reforms and still leave open other avenues for secret data collection.The American Civil Liberties Union says a better option is to let the law expire and to foster a broader debate on the scope of government surveillance."We're not supporting or opposing the bill," said Neema Singh Guliani, an ACLU legislative activist."The bill takes some incremental steps...