WASHINGTON -- The Senate will vote this week on a bill passed by the House prohibiting the National Security Agency from collecting bulk records, yet renewing U.S. spy programs set to expire in two weeks, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
McConnell, R-Ky., has faced mounting pressure from Democrats and companies such as Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. to allow a vote on legislation that curbs some of the NSA's spying powers, which were revealed in 2013 by former U.S. contractor Edward Snowden.
It was unclear whether the House-backed bill would have enough votes to pass the Senate. McConnell and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday that they were seeking a backup plan, which could include trying to pass a temporary one-month extension. Democrats said they oppose a short-term action.
"Regardless of what the House's position may be, we have an obligation to deal with the Patriot Act," McConnell said. "And we're going to deal with it this week. And it's my view that letting it expire is not a responsible thing to do."
Three provisions of the USAPATRIOT Act expire June 1, including the power to access millions of phone records to try to find suspected terrorists.
The other provisions expiring include one allowing so-called roving wiretaps, which the FBI uses for criminals who frequently switch cellphones, along with a third that makes it easier to obtain a warrant to target a "lone wolf" terror suspect who has no provable links to a terrorist organization.
McConnell and other lawmakers have said it would be dangerous to allow the lapse of the provisions, which were passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"Everything stops. It'll just go out of being," Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said of the implication of the law's expiration.
"We have a way to solve this right now," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Do what the House did. They reflected the will of the American people. Republican and Democrats came together on an overwhelming bipartisan vote."
The House bill, called the USA Freedom Act, passed May 13 by a bipartisan 338-88 vote. The four Republican representatives from Arkansas voted for the measure.
"The House had an overwhelmingly large vote for the USA Freedom Act. It's time for the Senate to act," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday.
But Republican leaders will have to overcome procedural obstacles from within their own party, as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has said he'll try to prevent renewing the surveillance powers.
Paul, who is seeking the 2016 Republican nomination for president, can attempt to hold up the bill with an extended floor debate, but McConnell can end the effort if he collects 60 votes to move forward.
McConnell's decision on the House bill is a reversal from previous efforts to prevent the legislation from going before the Senate. He led opposition to a similar measure in December when his party was in the minority.
It would be "a bad outcome" if the authorities expired under Republicans, who took control of the House and Senate in January, Thune said.
McConnell and Thune may be counting on the House bill failing to get 60 Senate votes to advance. Democrats would then either have to support a temporary extension or allow the authorities to expire.
"I hope that, if we put the House bill up over here and it doesn't get to 60, that we then pivot to a short-term extension that would allow us additional time to work this out," Thune said. "The House is in a very different place right now than where I think a majority of Senate Republicans are."
A temporary extension "would be a missed opportunity," Google, Facebook, Yahoo! Inc. and seven other Internet companies said in a letter to all senators Tuesday. The companies, which formed the Reform Government Surveillance coalition, have made passing the bill one of their top legislative priorities.
The companies, which have faced a backlash over revelations that the U.S. collects data about their users, are trying to assure domestic and international customers that they stand up to excessive government spying.
"Our companies came together two years ago to push for essential reforms that are necessary to protect national security, strengthen civil liberties, reaffirm user trust in the Internet, and promote innovation," they wrote. "The Senate can begin delivering on those reforms by passing the USA Freedom Act."
Information for this article was contributed by Chris Strohm, Kathleen Hunter and Heidi Przybyla of Bloomberg News and by Donna Cassata, Laurie Kellman, Alan Fram and Nancy Benac of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/20/2015