Rand Paul Gets Pressured to Block Any Last-Minute Patriot Act Renewal

A coalition of nearly 20 groups spanning the political spectrum—including Demand Progress, the Sunlight Foundation, and Tea Party Nation—are urging Sen. Rand Paul to stick to his guns and block any attempt to extend the expiring Patriot Act when the Senate reconvenes Sunday for a last-minute session called to save the lapsing authorities.

But other critics of government snooping are hoping Paul steps aside to at least allow a revote on legislation that would renew but reform the post-9/11 law's sunsetting surveillance powers.

In a letter sent Friday to Paul and 10 other senators, groups advocating a Patriot Act termination applauded the Republican presidential hopeful for his 10-hour talk-a-thon staged last week to rail against the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance practices. And they thanked Paul and the senators who joined him in the extended oratorical demonstration—seven Democrats and three Republicans—before asking them to obstruct any and all Patriot Act extensions, including reform legislation that would effectively end the NSA's bulk gathering of U.S. phone records.

"This upcoming weekend, you will be tested again by a series of votes that would extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, whether in the form of a straight reauthorization of that legislation, faux-compromise legislation, or the well-intentioned but insufficient USA FREEDOM Act," reads the letter. "We urge you to stand strong and oppose any measure that would extend the USA PATRIOT Act, no matter what its form, and to do everything in your power to ensure it permanently fades into the sunset."

The coalition letter is reflective of the dueling pressures being put on Paul and some of his like-minded senators as the upper chamber tries one last time to end its Patriot Act standoff on Sunday, just hours before the law's surveillance authorities will lapse on June 1. While some anti-surveillance hard-liners are pushing for a sunset of the law's provisions, a separate contingency of privacy and civil-liberties groups are urging approval of the House-passed Freedom Act, which the White House also supports.

After the Freedom Act fell three votes short of the filibuster-proof 60 needed to advance, Paul and Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich blocked repeated efforts by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to pass short-term extensions to the Patriot Act last week.

But while Wyden, Heinrich, and every other senator besides Paul listed on the coalition letter supports the Freedom Act, Paul says it does not go far enough to reform the government's surveillance regime. He has repeatedly vowed on social media and in interviews this week to "end domestic spying on Americans," a vow that has doubled as a fundraising pitch for the Kentucky senator.

Paul has asked for simple-majority votes on two amendments to the bill in exchange for letting debate go forward, a request that GOP leadership has so far denied. In the absence of such a deal, Paul appears ready to prevent another vote on the Freedom Act and let the spying programs lapse entirely.

"On Sunday, I'm going to fight to END the NSA's illegal spying program with everything I've got," Paul tweeted on Wednesday.

The Freedom Act would extend the Patriot Act's three expiring spy sections but with a host of transparency and oversight reforms, in addition forcing an end to the NSA phone dragnet in favor of a system in which analysts can request select records from telephone companies on an as-needed basis with judicial approval.

The bill's supporters argue that a lapse could bolster the hand of McConnell and other defense hawks, who want to weaken reforms and could use national-security anxiety and warnings of intelligence agencies being left "in the dark" as leverage to pass so-called compromise legislation being worked on by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and ranking member Dianne Feinstein.

More than 50 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and FreedomWorks, sent a separate joint letter to Senate leadership on Thursday voicing strong opposition to either of the backup bills, arguing they "contain flaws and omissions that are incompatible with the goal of stopping domestic bulk collection."

Draft language of Burr's bill would make permanent the three expiring sections of the Patriot Act and stretch the length of time for the NSA to transition away from bulk collection of call data from 180 days to two years. It would give the Justice Department authority to compel phone companies to keep phone records.

Feinstein's bill will also allow for the government to mandate that telecoms retain call logs. Compared to the Freedom Act, both measures would widen the definition of what the NSA could designate as a "specific selection term," or what can be considered an appropriate surveillance target.

(Image via Flickr user Michael Vadon)