In the debate over the Patriot Act, which, in part, allows the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone records and temporarily expired last night, Indiana's Senators are seeking for it to be re-instated.
One of those three provisions, Section 215, accommodates the NSA collection of phone records – a collection that has come under fire since former military contractor Edward Snowden revealed the collection program nearly two years ago.
In the days leading up to the provisions' expiration, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called that bulk collection "illegal."
But in a recent opinion published in Goshen News, Indiana Republican Sen. Dan Coats argued those provisions were "valuable." Coats has been part of the Republican faction pushing for the provisions' renewal.
"I certainly understand concerns about the possibility that this program could be used to breach personal privacy and civil liberties, which are important to all Americans and protected by the Constitution," Coats said in the piece. "But to date, there is no evidence to support accusations of abuse or unlawful spying on American citizens under this program."
Coats has expressed concerns about implementing a replacement program, adding that he's worried it would make U.S. counter-terrorism efforts less effective.
And Sen. Coats' Democratic counterpart, Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, says he's on the same page.
"At a time when ISIS is causing so much havoc in the Middle East and at the same time trying to stir up lone wolf attacks right here in our own country, to leave the country without the ability to do surveillance even for a minute is extremely dangerous," Donnelly told Fox59.
But Fred Cate, a professor of law and senior fellow at the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, disagrees with Coats' and Donnelly's notion.
"There's no evidence that it's that important of a program," Cate says. "Sure, there's a chance that if we impose new limits, we might get something wrong, but that's the cost of democracy."
Cate says the bulk collection program may be a useful tool, but he says courts are yet to suggest that it's an important tool for fighting terrorism.
"All the courts that have looked at it, all the separate review commissions the president appointed and Congress appointed and even the Department of Justice's own inspector general have concluded this has not been a very important program," he says.
He says, however, the decision to shift the responsibility of storing Americans' phone data from the NSA to telecom companies could raise some concerns about data security.
The Senate could vote on a bill known as the USA Freedom Act, which would make those changes in storage responsibilities, as soon as Tuesday.
