US President Barack Obama on Tuesday called on the US Senate to extend key Patriot Act provisions before they expire on Sunday, including the government’s ability to search Americans’ telephone records.
“This needs to get done,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s necessary to keep the American people safe and secure.”
However, with the Sunday deadline approaching, there was scant evidence of a search for a deal on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. The US House of Representatives and the Senate stood in recess for the week, and a House Republican leadership aide said there were no talks happening between the two chambers.
The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to discuss the issue on the record.
The Senate adjourned for its recess early on Saturday after a chaotic late-night session during which senators failed to pass a White House-backed House bill reforming the phone collection program. Attempts by Republican leaders to extend the current law also fell short, amid objections and stalling techniques by presidential candidate and US Senator Rand Paul, and others.
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling the Senate back into session on Sunday, just hours before the midnight deadline, but it is not clear lawmakers will have any new solution. With the House bill, which passed by a wide bipartisan margin, just a few votes short in the Senate, House Republicans appear content to hold off on a search for compromise in hopes that pressure will increase on McConnell to accept their bill or see the Patriot Act programs lapse.
“The Senate did not act and the problem we have now is that those authorities run out at midnight Sunday. I strongly urge the Senate to work through this recess to make sure they identify a way to get things done,” Obama said after meeting with NATO -Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Obama said that the controversial bulk phone collections program, which was exposed by US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, is reformed in the House bill, which does away with it and instead gives phone companies the responsibility of maintaining phone records that the government can search.
However, the legislation also includes other tools used by the FBI, including one that makes it easier to track “lone wolf” terrorism suspects who have no connection to a foreign power, while another allows the government to eavesdrop on suspects who continuously discard their cellphones.
“Those also are at risk of lapsing, so this needs to get done,” Obama said.
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