McCaul warns Patriot Act expiration is dangerous to homeland security
WASHINGTON — If the Senate fails to renew the Patriot Act before it expires June 1, it will damage America's ability to monitor and thwart terrorist threats, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Thursday.
"Without congressional action, it expires and we go dark," Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said at a reporters breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. "And that is a danger to the American people."
McCaul said he is disappointed that the Senate has been unable to reach agreement to pass the USA Freedom Act, which was approved by the House last week. That bill renews three key sections of the Patriot Act through 2019 while making a major change to the anti-terrorism law's most controversial provision, Section 215. The National Security Agency has used that section as the basis to collect phone records from millions of Americans not suspected of any crime. The USA Freedom Act would stop that bulk collection of phone data.
The Senate has reached a stalemate on what to do about the Patriot Act. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had hoped to persuade senators to renew the law without any changes, arguing that the government's surveillance powers should not be weakened when the nation is being threatened by the Islamic State and other militant groups.
But Democrats and several high-profile Republicans with a libertarian bent have rejected that idea, saying that Section 215 violates Americans' privacy rights. Most of them are pushing for adoption of the USA Freedom Act, but it's not clear if it has the 60 votes necessary to advance.
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McConnell is now seeking a two-month extension of the Patriot Act provisions, but even that looks unlikely to pass before the Senate leaves for its week-long Memorial Day recess. The NSA will wind down its mass data collection program if Section 215 is not renewed by June 1.
While the debate has focused on Section 215, McCaul said he is worried about the other two sections of the law that will also expire unless the Senate can reach an agreement.
The expiring sections include the law's "lone wolf" provision that allows government surveillance of suspected terrorists who are acting on their own and are not affiliated with any foreign government or organized group. A separate "roving wiretap" provision allows federal agents to target individuals rather than electronic devices so that they can keep track of suspected terrorists who use one disposal cell phone after another or close one Twitter account and open another.
"Those are probably the two most significant provisions passed after 9/11," McCaul said.
He said Senate leaders need to pass a bill that President Obama will sign. The White House has come out in favor of the USA Freedom Act.
"What McConnell is trying to do, the president might veto it," McCaul said. "The easiest thing to do is just pass what we passed and the White House would sign it."
He warned that terrorists are watching what Congress is doing.
"I hate it when we send messages to the terrorists that we're vulnerable," McCaul said.
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