I don't usually delve into conspiracies and this is more of a shower thought than a well researched argument, but I felt it would be better appreciated here.

After the leaks by Snowden and the reveal that everybody's data was being collected the NSA has been under increasing scrutiny by the legal system as well as the house, not to mention the people of other countries. After the leaks, Europe has been allowing unchecked numbers of "refugees" from the middle east in to their countries. Whether that was due to a larger conspiracy or incompetence doesn't matter. I believe that now that there have been a number of terrorist attacks the NSA's surveillance network is suddenly going to start catching terrorists before they can pull off their attacks, providing legitimacy to the program. It would then be child's play to use the legitimate fear of the people to fund and expand the program.