Surveillance powers lapse as Congress debates renewal

No solution is likely until tomorrow, at the earliest, on a congressional extension for surveillance laws that have now been allowed to expire.

The National Security Agency, for now, has suspended its controversial collection of the phone records of Americans.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will look to add three amendments to a measure passed by the House. As it stands now, that bill would end the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records after a six-month transition, but it would allow the agency to search the records held by phone companies. One proposed amendment would extend the transition time to 12 months.

In a rare Sunday session, Senate leaders abandoned their opposition to the House bill, as they were urged by the president and senior intelligence officials to pass it quickly. But Republican Sen. Rand Paul undercut their leverage by blocking their attempt to extend current law.

Paul is now taking credit for ending the phone records collection, in a tweet that also urges supporters to donate to his presidential campaign. He says he “forced the expiration” of what he calls the NSA’s “illegal spying program.”