[Infowarrior] - Senate advances NSA reform — but program to lapse at midnight

[Richard Forno]

Senate advances NSA reform — but program to lapse at midnight

Francis Rivera
By Julian Hattem - 05/31/15 06:41 PM EDT

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/243575-senate-advances-nsa-reform-but-program-to-lapse-at-midnight

The Senate voted on Sunday to advance legislation reforming National Security Agency surveillance programs.

The bipartisan approval sets up a vote on final passage that will send the legislation to the White House, where President Obama has vowed to sign it.

But the legislation will not reach Obama’s desk until after midnight, when Patriot Act provisions authorizing the NSA programs expire.

That means there will be a lapse of the programs until the Senate can take a final vote on the legislation.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has made the spying programs unearthed by former government contractor Edward Snowden a central part of his presidential candidacy, has vowed to force the expiration of the Patriot Act.

Paul argues the USA Freedom Act approved by the House does not go far enough to rein in spying programs that he and his allies argue are unconstitutional.

“Are we going to so blithely give up our freedom? Are we going to so blindly go along and take it?” Paul said in heated remarks on the Senate floor before the vote.  

“I’m not going to take it anymore,” he declared, as his voice rose to a shout. “I don’t think the American people are going to take it anymore.”

Paul’s comments came during a rare Sunday session of the Senate that was scheduled because of the deadline.

Tensions between Paul and other Senate Republicans were evident throughout Sunday’s proceedings — particularly when the Kentucky Republican sought to speak in opposition to the bill when Sens. Dan Coates (R-Ind.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) were holding the floor.

“The senator from Kentucky needs to learn the rules of the Senate,” McCain said. “Maybe the senator from Kentucky should know the rules of the Senate.”

Paul a little more than a week ago blocked the Senate from considering a short-term extension of the Patriot Act, which also could have prevented a lapse in the program if the House had found a way to consider it.

Paul blocked motions by his Kentucky colleague, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had sought to win the short-term extension. The clash was remarkable given McConnell’s support of Paul’s presidential bid.

The advance of the USA Freedom Act was a defeat for McConnell, who supported a straight extension of the Patriot Act. He and other Senate hawks had tried to win an extension, but fell short of a majority in the Senate in a vote earlier this month.

“It’s now the only realistic way forward,” McConnell conceded from the Senate floor.

The USA Freedom Act needed 60 votes to move forward. It had fallen three votes short of that mark earlier this month, but lawmakers changed their position in the last week, seemingly out of a desire to prevent the law from lapsing.

Paul’s critics, who have accused him of using the issue as a fundraising mechanism for his White House bid, bemoaned his tactics. The rhetoric turned increased testy on Sunday, as it became increasingly more clear that the civil libertarian was not going to back down.  

Nothing less than the ability of the government to defend itself from foreign terrorists was at stake, his opponents said.

“It is more essential than ever,” said Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), a member of the Intelligence Committee and defender of the NSA. “It is more necessary than ever as we’ve seen a higher threat level since 9/11.”

McConnell came under heavy criticism from Democrats ahead of Sunday’s vote for not finding a way forward before Sunday.

They argued that McConnell had dedicated too much floor time to a separate fight over trade legislation earlier this month.

“This is a manufactured crisis,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) — one of the authors of the USA Freedom Act — said on the Senate floor before the votes. “This matter should have been taken up and voted on up or down a month ago.”


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