Senate adjourns, rejects compromise metadata surveillance bill

On May 31, hours before Section 215 of Patriot Act expires, Senate to re-convene.

by Cyrus Farivar -

• 
  

Phil Roeder

Rhetoric flies as deadline looms to renew bulk phone metadata surveillance

Spying program Snowden exposed expires June 1 unless reauthorized by Congress.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, the United States Senate halted the advance of a compromise bill that aims to end metadata collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
Given that the USA Freedom Act cannot seemingly advance in the Senate, there is a very strong possibility that the relevant portions of the law will expire as of the stroke of midnight on June 1, 2015.
The Senate voted 57-42 to reject the measure, and also immediately rejected a 60-day extension of the existing law on a 54-45 vote. The bill, which previously passed the House of Representatives just over a week ago, has the support of the White House.

Further Reading

House votes 338-88 to stop bulk phone data collection

Some opponents say reforms in the bill are too weak to be worthwhile.

The House of Representatives had already gone into recess for a week over the Memorial Day holiday on Monday. Meanwhile, Senate was sent into recess shortly after the votes, but will return for a rare Sunday session on May 31.
"There is no Plan B," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters earlier on Friday.
"The fact is we’ve got people in the United States Senate right now who are playing chicken with this," he added. "And to play chicken with that is grossly irresponsible."
Among other revisions, the USA Freedom Act ends the bulk phone database but doesn't include many other wished-for reforms, such as a privacy advocate at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was in an earlier version of the bill. It also doesn't include "minimization" procedures meant to make sure the government purges information about people not related to its investigations.
Some critics, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, say that the USA Freedom Act does not go far enough to provide meaningful surveillance reform.
According to Politico, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell "announced that the Senate would be back in session on May 31 to resolve the Patriot Act standoff—just hours before the critical provisions are poised to sunset."