The White House made it clear Friday that it’s running out of patience with the Senate, and wants the upper chamber to quickly extend domestic surveillance authorities that will expire next week.
“I haven’t heard a rational explanation for what’s going on in the U.S. Senate right now,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday. He added that he hasn’t seen “a satisfactory or rational explanation … or even an unsatisfactory, rational explanation, of what exactly they’re doing up there.”
If the Senate does nothing, the following provisions will sunset: Section 215, the legal underpinning of the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records’ collection program; roving wiretap authority; and language making it easier to keep tabs on “lone wolf” terrorist suspects. These were passed as part of the USA Patriot Act, which was signed into law in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Section 215 is the most controversial item, and the House has already passed the USA Freedom Act, which would stop the bulk collection of phone data.
But the Senate failed to advance the USA Freedom Act last week, and it also failed to pass a proposal from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to briefly extend the surveillance authorities in their current form for a short time.
Earnest said last week’s votes made no sense, because senators who said they are worried about taking these tools away from the intelligence agencies blocked the USA Freedom Act. Earnest also noted that other senators say they are worried about civil liberties, which the USA Freedom Act protects, yet some of them also blocked the bill.
The Senate will meet Sunday afternoon to try once again to make progress on some version of the bill.
