Key anti-terrorist programs authorized by the Patriot Act are scheduled to shut down if Congress fails to act by midnight Sunday, but it still remains unclear how the Senate plans to move forward.
When the senators convene at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, they will have three options to keep sections of the Patriot Act from expiring: Pass a temporary extension of the Patriot Act, pass the USA Freedom Act (which would end the NSA’s practice of bulk collection of phone records–the date, time, and length, but not the content, of phone calls–while reauthorizing the rest of the Patriot Act), or pass a revised version of the USA Freedom Act. Before the Memorial Day recess, the Senate fell three votes shy from ending debate on the House-passed USA Freedom Act and came up 15 votes short of passing a clean two-month extension of the Patriot Act.
