A group of Conservatives, led by Libertarian-leaning Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), are pushing to have NSA surveillance funding pulled unless the agency reins in some of its aggressive wholesale spying on Americans. The Amendment puts the group of politicians on a collision course with House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio.), who has repeatedly publicly supported the NSA domestic spying program.

The Amendment "ends authority for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act" and "bars the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who are not subject to an investigation under Section 215." The NSA has apparently taken the threat of the Amendment seriously enough to schedule a private emergency meeting to try and scuttle it.

Meanwhile, all of the negative press attention hasn't swayed government one bit so far, with Office of the Director of Foreign Intelligence publicly announcing (something that traditionally does not happen) that the Office would be renewing the NSA's authority to spy on Americans for another ninety days.

"In light of the significant and continuing public interest in the telephony metadata collection program, the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) has decided to declassify and disclose publicly that the government filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that the court renewed that authority," said the announcement.