Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters Saturday the White House was exaggerating the time it would take the National Security Agency to wind down a controversial phone surveillance program as news spread that the agency had already begun to curtail the program’s key operations.
After senators narrowly defeated a two-month extension of the Patriot Act Saturday morning, the North Carolina Republican called the NSA’s threats to begin shuttering the program “disingenuous,” according to Politico.
The Senate also failed Saturday to pass a bill called the USA Freedom Act, which passed the House May 13, that would have blocked the government’s ability to collect data in bulk but allowed it to search records in certain cases.
The Justice Department began to pare down its collection of phone data Friday, an administration official told the Associated Press.
Burr called the administration’s warning about the need to begin shuttering the program in advance of the May 31 deadline for a Patriot Act solution a lobbying tactic to pressure lawmakers into taking action on the legislation.
Officials had previously said the surveillance program could be concluded in six hours, although they noted the administration would begin the process earlier if a compromise looked unlikely heading into next week’s congressional recess, Politico reported.
A contentious provision of the Patriot Act, Section 215, will expire May 31 at midnight if Congress does not arrive at a solution beforehand.
Section 215 was revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013 and gives the NSA the authority to collect phone data in bulk.
