Deadline looms at midnight for extension of NSA surveillance

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

A midnight deadline draws near for senators meeting in an extraordinary Sunday session to extend surveillance programs, but a lapse seemed unavoidable and intelligence officials worried about giving terrorists greater freedom to operate.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a presidential candidate, has made clear he planned to force the expiration of the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records. The chamber’s rules allow him to do it, at least temporarily.

Terrorists “are looking for the seams to operate within,” CIA Director John Brennan said. “This is something that we can’t afford to do right now.” He bemoaned “too much political grandstanding and crusading for ideological causes that have skewed the debate on this issue” and said the terrorism-fighting tools are important to American lives.

A House-passed bill backed by the White House would remake the National Security Agency’s phone collection program. But Senate backers were three votes short.

Even if the legislation were to gain the needed support, in spite of opposition from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., all senators would need to agree to move to a final vote. Paul was not going along.

“I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program,” Paul said in a statement.