Republican anger at Sen. Rand Paul’s objections to a federal anti-terror surveillance bill spilled onto the Senate floor in an unusual Sunday session, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., attempting to prohibit Paul from delivering a fiery speech opposing an extension of the spy law.
Paul eventually got his turn at the podium, delivering an impassioned speech against the section of the USA Patriot Act set to expire at midnight.
But not before McCain, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee and a proponent of the law, tried to block him from speaking.
Republican senators told Paul there was no time left on the floor for him to speak, but Paul, who had been sitting in the chamber for 30 minutes, said he believed he should be allowed five minutes of floor time and called for senators to report to the chamber for a live quorum call.
A few minutes later, senators relented and in exchange for Paul suspending the quorum call, they let him talk.
Paul objects to the law primarily because the National Security Agency has been using it to collect domestic emails and telephone calls in bulk, which came to light only because of revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Paul said the bill violates privacy rights and must end.
“We are not collecting the information of spies, we are not collecting the information of terrorists, we are collecting all American citizens’ records, all of the time,” Paul said. “This is what we fought the revolution over. Are we going to so blithely give up our freedom? Are we going to so blithely go along and just take it? Well, I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican from Kentucky, is running for President and has put his fight against renewing the law at the center of his campaign.
McCain is one of the senators most exasperated by Paul’s opposition, which could lead to the law lapsing at midnight. He has accused Paul of risking national security to bolster his own presidential ambitions.
McCain also questioned whether Paul understood Senate parliamentary procedure.
“Maybe the Senator from Kentucky should know the rules of the Senate,” McCain said.
