By Siobhan Gorman And Michael R. Crittenden
The U.S. Senate failed Tuesday to advance legislation
overhauling a National Security Agency program that conducts bulk
collection of Americans' phone data and other records under the
Patriot Act, likely ending efforts to address surveillance concerns
this year and leaving it to the new GOP-led Congress to sort
out.
Supporters of the NSA measure needed 60 votes to advance it, but
managed to garner only 58, while 42 voted against further
consideration. Four Senate Republicans voted with 52 Democrats and
two independents in favor of beginning debate on the measure. One
Democrat--Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida--voted with 41 Republicans to
block debate from moving forward.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee and lead sponsor of the measure, had urged colleagues
ahead of the vote to allow an open Senate debate on the matter.
"Let's not block this bill and say we want something better,"
Mr. Leahy said ahead of the vote. "Don't let this get bogged down
in procedural flimflam that the American public hates."
Critics of the legislation said it hadn't received proper
consideration within the Senate and voiced concern that it could
leave the country vulnerable to more attacks, citing the extremist
group Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
"Now is not the time to be considering legislation that takes
away the exact tools we need to combat ISIL," Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said.
Mr. Leahy's bill, introduced over the summer, was considered the
last chance for passing a surveillance overhaul this year. With the
Republicans set to take over the Senate next year, it is unclear
whether there will be momentum for an overhaul.
Mr. McConnell, who will assume leadership of the Senate next
year, said provisions outlawing bulk collection of data by the
government "would end one of our nation's critical capabilities to
gather significant intelligence on terrorist threats."
But senators may have a reason to act next year. The portion of
the Patriot Act that provides the legal underpinning for the NSA
program that collects millions of phone records expires in June.
The risk of losing the program entirely could motivate the
Republican Congress to pass alternative legislation next year.
Mr. Leahy's bill would have reined in some surveillance
practices, particularly the NSA's phone records program. It also
would have ended so-called bulk collection of U.S. records from
companies by spy and law-enforcement agencies, and required the
government to issue narrower record requests to companies.
The measure would have increased public disclosure about spy
activities involving U.S. data and established a privacy advocate
at the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The crosscutting politics of privacy issues mean that the
surveillance bill has generated supporters and detractors in both
parties, creating some interesting pairings. Sens. Mike Lee (R.,
Utah) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas), for example, are co-sponsors of the
legislation along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).
Sens. Cruz and Lee were among the four GOP lawmakers to vote
with Democrats to move debate forward. The other two were Sens.
Dean Heller of Nevada and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski.
Lawmakers in both parties began calling for an end to the bulk
collection of phone records shortly after former NSA contractor
Edward Snowden revealed details of the NSA's phone records program
in 2013.
The proposal gained more support after a presidentially
appointed NSA review panel recommended an end to the NSA's
collection of phone records, suggesting the government find another
way to get the information.
President Barack Obama then endorsed that approach, but said the
NSA would need to come up with another way to obtain the data it
needed on terrorism suspects. Intelligence leaders said they had
developed a plan to obtain that data by conducting searches at the
phone companies.
In recent days, Mr. Leahy's bill received backing from an
eclectic array of outside groups, including major technology
companies, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National
Rifle Association.
The White House had issued a statement Monday saying it
"strongly supports" the bill.
The measure also was backed by the presidentially appointed
review group, which said in a letter Friday that the bill "is
broadly consistent with the recommendations we made last year in
our report on how to safeguard both liberty and security in a
rapidly changing world."
The defeat marks a setback for technology companies--including
Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.--which had supported
the bill as a protection of their customers' privacy.
Backers said it was unlikely a similar measure would pass
through a Republican Senate. "I just don't think the climate will
be hospitable next year," said Laura Murphy, Washington director
for the American Civil Liberties Union.
While some senators objected to the measure out of concern for
U.S. national security, Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) voted no because
it would have extended a key section of the Patriot Act, a measure
opposed by many conservative as well as liberal advocates of civil
liberties.
"Today's vote to oppose further consideration of the Patriot Act
extension proves that we are one step closer to restoring civil
liberties in America," Sen. Paul said later.
Ms. Murphy said she believed the NSA bill fixed a problematic
part of the Patriot Act. She also noted that several pending
federal lawsuits are challenging surveillance programs, which could
result in changes. "This was not our only recourse," she said.
Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com and Michael R.
Crittenden at michael.crittenden@wsj.com
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