US Senate Leader to Push for Vote to Renew NSA Phone Dragnet
The U.S. Senate on Thursday failed to move forward on efforts to extend the section of the Patriot Act that the National Security Agency has used to collect millions of domestic telephone records.
Congress is facing an effective deadline of this weekend to extend the phone records collection section of the antiterrorism law, with Section 215 of the Patriot Act expiring June 1 and lawmakers scheduled to take a weeklong break after finishing business this week.
On Thursday, Senators were wrestling with three alternatives: allow the Patriot Act’s records collection program to expire, extend the program with no new limits, or pass a House of Representatives bill that aims to end bulk records collection but allows the NSA to search phone and business records in a more targeted manner.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said late Thursday he will push for a vote by the weekend to extend the Patriot Act’s records collection provisions.
The White House, leaders in the House of Representatives and some senators called on Senate leaders to schedule a vote on the House-passed USA Freedom Act, a bill that would prohibit the NSA from collecting domestic telephone records in bulk. The bill would allow the agency to operate a more targeted records collection program.
Full article by Grant Gross, ITworld
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