Key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act expired early yesterday after the US Senate failed to prevent their lapse, possibly challenging US national security efforts.
The midnight deadline came and went with senators unable to reach a deal stopping the counterterror provisions from expiring, after Republican US Senator Rand Paul blocked any action.
The Senate had taken the step of advancing bipartisan reform legislation that would end the US National Security Agency program that scoops up telephone data on millions of US citizens with no connection to terrorism.
Photo: Reuters
However, legislators failed to seal the deal on the USA FREEDOM Act, which would also preserve important national security provisions, or pass a short-term extension of those provisions first codified in the USA PATRIOT Act after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“The PATRIOT Act will expire tonight,” Paul said after hours of debate on how to get the reform bill across the finish line.
Paul, a candidate for next year’s presidential election, blocked expedited votes on the measure, as well as any potential extensions of PATRIOT Act authorizations.
The reform bill appeared likely to pass later this week, according to senators and aides, and, as it stands, would mark an end to the telephone data dragnet first exposed by former US security contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.
However, the delay means the bulk data program and two other PATRIOT Act provisions, allowing roving wiretaps on terror suspects and lone-wolf tracking, lapsed yesterday ahead of the bill’s passing.
“There is no way to get any type of agreement tonight — either an extension or passage of a bill,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said late on Sunday.
The FREEDOM Act has passed the US House, but with the Senate yet to act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the Sunday session to reach a solution.
However, Paul, who wants the entire bulk data provision scrapped and does not support the reform bill, stood in the way.
“We call on the Senate to ensure this irresponsible lapse in authorities is as short-lived as possible,” White House press secretary Joshua Earnest said in a statement.
He said the Senate “took an important — if late — step forward” with the reform bill, and encouraged legislators to “put aside their partisan motivations and act swiftly” to get it passed.
CIA Director John Brennan on Sunday said that allowing vital surveillance programs about to lapse could increase terror threats.
“This is something that we cannot afford to do right now,” Brennan said on CBS talk show Face the Nation.
Top Senate Democrat Harry Reid blasted McConnell for opposing the compromise reform that passed the House and not having a viable plan that would keep crucial provisions from expiring.
“That is why we are here, staring down the barrel of yet another unnecessary, manufactured crisis that threatens our national security,” Reid said on the Senate floor.
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