Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday employed a procedural technique to push forward a four-year renewal of expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, preventing any amendments to legislation extending the authorities.
Reid put the legislation in a House message received by the Senate after the chamber voted 74-13 to table the bill. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mike Lee of Utah and Dean Heller of Nevada joined 10 senators who caucus with the Democrats to vote against the motion. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted present.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur with the House message by Thursday morning. The expiring Patriot Act powers sunset Friday.
Paul, a Tea Party favorite, was looking for the Senate to vote on amendments he offered that were designed to protect civil liberties in legislation extending the Patriot Act for four years. In one amendment offered by Paul and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a Dec. 31, 2013, sunset was proposed for national security letters, administrative subpoenas that the FBI uses to obtain evidence without a court order.
The Republican senator expressed frustration that the Senate did not have more time to debate Patriot Act renewal legislation as Reid promised earlier this year.
“Today’s events further underscore the U.S. government’s lack of transparency and accountability to the American people,” Paul said in a statement.
Reid said on the Senate floor he has “a responsibility to try to get this bill done as soon as possible.”
“I understand Senator Paul’s exasperation because this is something that is extremely important to him and there was every desire, from my perspective and I think that of this body, to have a full and complete debate on the Patriot Act,” Reid said. “But the Senate does not always work that way.”
Reid and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reached a deal on the extension Thursday. They agreed to extend until June 1, 2015, the “roving wiretaps” power and “business records” authority, which makes it easier for federal authorities to get tangible evidence — such as library records — as part of an investigation. The congressional leaders also decided to give a four-year extension to the “lone wolf” power, initially authorized under a 2004 law, which allows probes of suspected terrorists not tied to a specific organization or nation.
The three authorities are currently allowed under a 90-day extension that Congress approved in February.
The House tried to pass legislation in February that would have extended the powers until December. That bill was considered under House procedures that required a two-thirds majority to pass the bill. But House Democrats and conservative Republicans joined together and the bill was not approved.
