Pressure is mounting on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to back a legislative plan to reform the National Security Agency’s controversial surveillance program.
With just days left before the week-long Memorial Day recess, McConnell, R-Ky., has yet to decide the Senate’s path forward for a Patriot Act surveillance provision that expires at the end of May. He’s planning to huddle with GOP rank-and-file and could make a decision today, GOP aides told the Washington Examiner.
House Republicans want McConnell to take up their legislation, the USA Freedom Act, which ends the NSA’s bulk collection of domestic data and adds additional court oversight on government surveillance. The House passed the bill last week in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, and the measure is supported by the Obama administration.
“The USA Freedom Act had 338 votes in the House,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday. “That is beyond veto proof and a strong showing about where the American people are on the issue.”
McConnell and other top Republicans, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said they want to pass legislation that would simply reauthorize the surveillance law without reforms that they believe would weaken the government’s anti-terrorism efforts.
McConnell has placed both the USA Freedom Act and the NSA surveillance extension on the Senate calendar for possible consideration.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Tuesday pointed out that the USA Freedom Act passed by a large margin in the House, but left the door open for possible compromise when asked what he would do if the Senate passes a different measure.
“The Senate needs to act,” Boehner said. “When they act, we’ll look at the next step.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a floor speech Tuesday that if McConnell blocks the USA Freedom Act, the move would “ignore the voice of the American people,” who have become increasingly skeptical of government spying to combat terrorism.
