WASHINGTON-- The chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee released a proposal meant to bridge divides among lawmakers on how to handle the June 1 expiration of domestic spying programs, with no clear outcome in sight late on Friday.
Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina announced his bill as lawmakers tried to figure out how to handle the expiration of certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act that let spy agencies sweep up millions of Americans' telephone records.
Although Republicans control both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the two chambers were at an impasse, provoking a rebuke from the White House.
Spokesman Josh Earnest accused some senators of "playing chicken" with civil liberties and national security.
The White House wants the Senate to join the House in passing another bill, the USA Freedom Act, which would end the bulk collection of so-called telephone metadata and replace it with a more targeted system.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, an author of the Freedom Act, dismissed Burr's proposal, saying it had not been vetted or subjected to public hearings. The Freedom Act was in the works for two years before it passed the House by a four-to-one margin.
"It is more of the same kinds of pressure tactics that have been used to prevent real reform," Leahy said.
Burr's "FISA Improvements Act of 2015" would end the bulk data collection on June 30, 2017, and provide a path toward having corporations store the telephone records, not government agencies.
Burr said his plan was a compromise that incorporated provisions of the Freedom Act and giving "a framework to plug the holes" in that measure.
House leaders have called on the Senate to pass the Freedom Act, but it has not yet come up for a vote in the chamber. Several Republican senators, including Burr and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, would rather extend the Patriot Act provisions unchanged than adopt the House bill.
Lawmakers said the senate would likely vote on both the Freedom Act and McConnell's proposal for a two-month Patriot Act extension later on Friday or very early Saturday morning.
Republican senators met to discuss the issue Friday afternoon. Walking out, Republican Senator Steve Daines, a Freedom Act co-sponsor, said he still did not know whether the bill had enough support to pass.
REUTERS
