‘freedom’ to spy, just less
WASHINGTON — Two days after allowing post-9/11 surveillance programs to lapse, the Senate approved a bill reviving the measures and the President signed it.
The Senate voted Tuesday to approve the USA Freedom Act, a bill that continues the Patriot Act but overhauls the National Security Administration’s controversial program sweeping up Americans’ phone records to check for terror ties.
The Senate approved the compromise, previously passed by the House, after rejecting it last week. The vote was 67-32.
The reversal came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dropped his prior push to block Patriot Act reforms.
President Obama signed the bill late Tuesday, hours after the Senate gave its final approval, according to White House officials.
The bill continues provisions that lapsed Sunday night, including the FBI’s authority to gather business records in terrorism investigations and keep eavesdropping on suspects who switch cell phones.
The bill alters the NSA’s phone-records operation, leaving the records with phone companies and giving the government the ability to seek them after obtaining the warrant.
The vote came two years after then-NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed details of the agency’s phone records program.
The approval followed acrimonious Senate debate in which senators in both parties blasted Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for blocking quick votes and causing the twoday lapse in Patriot Act powers.
Senators accused Paul of attempting to use the move to boost his presidential campaign.
“We as senators are not here to serve as extras in a campaign commercial,” Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Paul’s actions also drew the ire of George Pataki, the former New York governor now running for President. Before the Senate vote, Pataki called Paul “dangerous” and irresponsible” for leaving the U.S. vulnerable.
“Right now, we have no ability to monitor people we think are terrorists — potentially terrorists in this country,” the former threeterm Republican said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“This is a very dangerous time. This is a very dangerous act,” he said of Paul.