Mr. Trump’s frequent complaints about surveillance whipped up new levels of support among some of his congressional allies for broad new restrictions on the F.B.I. The president has pointed to its wiretapping of his former campaign adviser Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, as evidence that the bureau abused its power in an effort to undermine him.

Though an inspector general inquiry found serious mistakes with the wiretapping of Mr. Page, it did not find evidence to support the narrative pushed by Mr. Trump and his allies that the high-level F.B.I. officials conspired to weaponize FISA against him.

Before the meeting, Mr. McConnell said he would try to prevent an outcome in which gridlock allowed the provisions to lapse, but acknowledged significant differences of opinion among members of Congress.

“Whether we can resolve those and pass new legislation is unclear,” Mr. McConnell said at his weekly news conference in the Capitol. “If we are unable to resolve our differences, my preference would be for another extension, which would give us more time to talk.”

While Mr. McConnell and many Republican senators want to largely leave the surveillance powers intact, deferring to Mr. Barr to make policy changes within the Justice Department to address concerns raised by Mr. Trump, some of their most vocal opponents come from within Republican ranks.

Before the meeting, Mr. Lee said that extending the expiring provisions without revising the FISA law was “one of the dumbest things we could do.” He called such a move “policy and political malpractice” and said it would happen “over my dead body.”

Democrats have their own internal disputes, with national security-minded moderates facing off with progressives driven by what they see as undue infringement on civil liberties. The tensions burst into the open last week, when a senior Democratic lawmaker effectively derailed a bill negotiated by two House chairmen that would have extended most of the expiring powers while putting in place some new limits to FISA and allowing a dysfunctional and defunct National Security Agency call records program to lapse.