A sense of urgency was apparent Sunday afternoon as the Senate reconvened for a rare session in a last-ditch — and increasingly improbable — effort to renew provisions of the controversial Patriot Act that are aimed at fighting terrorism.
As they headed into a closed-door strategy session, Senate Republicans who once staunchly opposed changes to the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection program appeared more bent on compromise as they stared down a midnight deadline to keep several counterterrorism tools from expiring altogether.
“Compromises may have to be made,” Arizona Sen. John McCain, one of the biggest opponents of NSA reform, told reporters on Sunday.
That’s because as the deadline approaches, senators realized that okaying House-passed USA Freedom Act, which would effectively end the NSA’s collection and storage of telephone metadata on millions of Americans, would be the only option to keep Patriot Act provisions alive past Sunday.
Chief sponsors of the USA Freedom Act proclaimed on Sunday that they have the votes to pass that bill.
But the last-minute coalescing might be too late as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, vowed Saturday to “force the expiration of the (National Security Agency) illegal spy program” and Senate rules make it all but certain that he will succeed if he follows through on his pledge.
“This is a debate over your right to be left alone,” Paul said on the Senate floor on Sunday.
A House bill failed in the Senate last week by just three votes and Paul blocked McConnell’s attempts to reauthorize the Patriot Act without any changes for even just one day past expiration.
Now, the path to passage for any bill that would reauthorize Patriot Act provisions seems entirely uncertain, and Senate Republicans began meeting at 5 p.m. to find a way forward.
Heading into that closed-door meeting, Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois told reporters that he would support the House-passed bill, which he had opposed just last week.
Another opponent of reining in the NSA, Sen. Orin Hatch of Utah, said he’d “like to solve this problem tonight.”
“If we could, one way or another. I think most senators probably feel that way,” Hatch said. “It depends on the senator from Kentucky … if he decides to filibuster there isn’t a heck of a lot we can do about it ’til Thursday.”
Some Republicans piled onto Paul, noting that his efforts to block the Patriot Act reauthorization are tied to his presidential ambitions.
“I think he obviously has a higher priority for his fundraising and political ambitions than for the security of the nation,’ McCain, the chairman of the armed services committee, said on Sunday.
Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the bulk metadata collection program, is not the only provision of the law set to expire. A key provision allowing counterterror officials to obtain roving wiretaps to listen in on potential terror suspects, even if they change phones, would also lapse.
President Barack Obama, who has endorsed the USA Freedom Act, also urged the Senate to move forward and knocked “a small group of senators” who he said are “standing in the way.”
“And unfortunately, some folks are trying to use this debate to score political points. But this shouldn’t and can’t be about politics. This is a matter of national security,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio address.
While Obama didn’t target Paul by name in his radio address, he might as well have.
The Republican presidential hopeful isn’t passing up on an ounce of the political benefits his crusade against the NSA’s domestic surveillance program is earning him.
He’s taken his fight to the campaign trail and on social media, galvanizing his base of support in the lead-up to the crucial Sunday session, all the while his campaign pushed out fundraising appeals.
And a pro-Paul super PAC released an ad Friday that framed Sunday’s showdown as a “brawl for liberty,” even using the spot as an opportunity to hit not just Obama, but Paul’s primary opponent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Cruz supports the USA Freedom Act, but has argued against allowing the expiring Patriot Act provisions to expire.
Cruz wouldn’t attack Paul on Sunday, instead insisting that passing the USA Freedom Act would be “the right thing to do.”
“He is obviously passionate on the issue and I commend him for his passion,” Cruz said. “I think the right policy solution is to pass the USA Freedom Act.”
House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday urged his Senate counterparts to move forward on that bill.
“Al Qaeda, ISIL and other terrorists around the globe continue to plot attacks on America and our allies. Anyone who is satisfied with letting this critical intelligence capability go dark isn’t taking the terrorist threat seriously. I’d urge the Senate to pass the bipartisan USA Freedom Act, and do so expeditiously,” he said in a statement issued on Sunday.
And Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who has largely stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Paul’s reform efforts, called for the passage of the USA Freedom Act. Wyden had also voted to move forward on the House bill last week.
But Wyden is also ultimately pinning the blame on the Senate’s Republican leadership
“Senate Republican leaders chose to run out the clock until expiration of these provisions was the only likely outcome, and they bear full responsibility for where the Senate stands today,” Wyden spokesman Keith Chu said in a statement to CNN.