The Senate on Tuesday rejected attempts by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to moderate some of the House-passed reforms to federal surveillance programs, and then passed the House bill over McConnell’s objection. Obama quickly signed the bill into law Tuesday evening.
After missing the deadline for extending these surveillance authorities on Sunday, the Senate finally approved the House language in a 67-32 vote. McConnell and his Republican colleagues made up most of the “no” votes.
The vote series is a big defeat for McConnell, who opposed the House’s USA Freedom Act and insisted on votes to amend that bill. But it’s a victory for supporters of the House bill who wanted the Senate to pass it without any changes.
Just before the final vote, McConnell argued that the Senate was about to approve another plan, supported by President Obama, to weaken some of the tools the U.S. has used to fight terrorism and keep the country safe. McConnell spent several minutes lashing out at Obama for dismantling these tools.
“Pres. has been a reluctant commander in chief,” McConnell said in a tweet that was sent even as he spoke on the floor. “And between those 2 bookends, much has occurred that has undermined our nat’l security.”
But McConnell was clearly in the minority. The Senate vote means the bill supported by most members and the White House cleared Congress and went to the White House. The White House said shortly after 9 p.m. that President Obama signed it into law.
The bill will revive an anti-terror surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency that lapsed Sunday at midnight. The USA Freedom Act reforms the program by eliminating the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone “meta-data.” Instead, telecommunications companies would store that data, although the government would still have access to it.
One of McConnell’s key amendments would have extended a transition period to the new program from six months to a full year. But the Senate defeated that proposal 44-54.
McConnell also called up an amendment to strip out language aimed at letting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court hear arguments against warrants for surveillance activity. That proposal fell 42-56.
McConnell then brought forward a substitute amendment that was supported by McConnell, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and others. That amendment would have required the Director of National Intelligence to certify the new program is ready to transition from having the NSA collect data to letting companies keep that data, but it lost 43-56.
The White House has called on the Senate for the last few days to pass the House bill, and quickly restore authorities that lapsed Sunday.
