 President Obama has announced plans to dismantle the NSA's phone record database. My weed guy feels better already. I'm Ross Miller, and this is 90 Seconds on the Verge. I am therefore ordering a transition that will end the Section 215 bulk metadata program as it currently exists and establish a mechanism that preserves the capabilities we need without the government holding this bulk metadata. That was from a January 17th speech where Obama gave his administration until March 28th to lay out its plan. Well, one day before that deadline, we have an answer. Under the new proposal, the NSA will no longer keep its massive record collection. Instead, the data will remain in the hands of phone companies like AT&T and Verizon. While the NSA currently holds its records for up to five years, according to the New York Times, there will be no mandate for phone companies to hold anything beyond the 18 months or so that's already federally required. But how exactly did the NSA get clearance for this bulk record collection in the first place? Well, it actually all has to do with Section 215. Both the FBI and NSA have been using Section 215 of the Patriot Act as legal justification for collecting large amounts of metadata, which was being done in secret until news of the program was leaked by Edward Snowden last summer. Some limitations have already gone into effect. As of last month, the NSA must now get approval from a judge to access even its own records, where Obama's proposal goes from here as up to Congress. In the meantime, the administration has asked the Foreign Intelligence Reveillance Court to renew the program as it currently exists for another 90-day cycle. For more on this and other stories, check out The Verge. Coming up next, we reveal the names of more secret NSA programs.