The Senate is set to convene for an unusual Sunday session later this afternoon in an eleventh-hour effort to extend three controversial segments of the Patriot Act that are set to expire, among them Section 215 of the law, which the NSA used to collect Americans’ phone records.
Sen. Rand Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican and presidential hopeful, has pledged to block any extension of the law tonight, which will cause it to expire at midnight tonight.
“Tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program,” Paul said in a statement on Saturday.
The segment is part of the USA Patriot Act, which was enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and includes multiple components with varying expiration dates.
Both Paul and Democratic Sen. Paul Wyden, of Oregon, are opposed to extending the law — even for a few additional days — to allow the Senate to work out a compromise.
The bipartisan opposition means there is a significant chance the law will be allowed to at least temporarily lapse at midnight, when the authorization sunsets.
The law’s looming expiration has created a major political headache for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
McConnell and a group of other Republicans wanted to extend the law “as is” for an additional five years, bucking the majority of Senate lawmakers who want to renew the law with significant privacy reforms, including a ban on the NSA’s bulk data collection.
Their reform bill, the USA Freedom Act, preserves the NSA’s ability to use the meta-data, but keeps the bulk records with phone companies who must preserve them for 18 months. The USA Freedom Act passed the House earlier this month with an overwhelming 338 votes.
But McConnell’s opposition in part sunk the USA Freedom Act in the Senate, and it came up three votes shy of the 60 needed to stop a filibuster and proceed to debate.
Wyden and Paul then blocked attempts by McConnell to extend the current law for a week or even a few days. With no other solution at hand, McConnell scheduled the rare Sunday session.
Wyden aides told the Washington Examiner it’s unlikely he’ll agree to a temporary extension of the current law, but support may be building for passage of the USA Freedom Act.
Sen Mike Lee, R-Utah, told CNN’s “State of the Union” he believes there are now at least 60 votes to move the bill forward.
“I think the question is not really about whether we will get this passed, but when,” Lee said on the program. “It will happen either tonight or it will happen on Wednesday or some time in between then, but really within that 72-hour window, we are going to pass the House-passed USA Freedom Act, which passed the House with a bipartisan supermajority of 338 votes.”
McConnell’s office declined to comment.
