The Patriot Act expired Monday morning, as lawmakers failed to reauthorize it in its original form. Poll: Americans support Paul's NSA position over McConnell's

While Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and allies in his party ostracize the junior Bluegrass State senator, Rand Paul, for opposing the Patriot Act, the American people lean far more towards Paul’s position than McConnell’s.

A new poll from Morning Consult found that 27 percent of respondents prefer allowing provisions that enable the National Security Agency to collect bulk data on Americans’ cell phones to expire, like the 2016 presidential contender Rand Paul. Only 12 percent agree with McConnell that the Patriot Act provisions should be extended as they were originally passed.


A plurality, 42 percent of respondents, believe the provisions that allow the NSA to collect so-called metadata should be extended with some modifications. This includes 41 percent of tea party supporters and 40 percent of millennials ages 18-29.

At midnight early Monday morning, the Patriot Act expired as lawmakers failed to reauthorize it in its original form.

Instead, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to end debate and bring to a vote a new bill called the USA Freedom Act that would curb some of the NSA’s bulk collection authority, but not end the practices entirely. The Senate is widely expected to take the new bill up again this week, though McConnell and his allies have said they will continue to lobby their colleagues to pass a new version of the original law.