Over the weekend, the Senate passed the 1,600-plus page omnibus spending bill, which authorizes some $1.1 trillion in spending spanning myriad topics, including $63 billion in "emergency" war funding to the Pentagon.

The bill is drawing attention for Congressional efforts to cram anything and everything into the bill, from war funding to federal funding for municipal projects, and even surveillance. The ISIS war even gets $5 billion in direct funding, even though the war itself hasn't been authorized by Congress.

On the surveillance front, the omnibus bill opened a lot of eyes by including what Rep. Justin Amash (R – MI) termed the "first statutory authority for the acquisition, retention, and dissemination of US persons' private communications obtained without legal process such as a court order or subpoena."