In an ornate room on the first floor of the Capitol, some of the most liberal members of Congress met for lunch on Thursday with nearly a dozen stalwart conservatives who’ve repeatedly taken on their own leadership for being too soft.

The agenda consisted of a single topic, perhaps the only one that would bring together such ideologically divergent politicians in Washington at this moment: their shared disdain for the PATRIOT Act.


With key provisions of the controversial post-9/11 law set to expire at the end of the month, including authority for the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, critics in both parties are preparing to strike. Among those on hand for the meeting were Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan, a card-carrying ACLU member from the liberal mecca of Madison, Wisconsin, and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, a tea party adherent from Kentucky.

“The collection of data is still way too wide and can still be too easily abused,” Pocan said of the NSA program exposed by Edward Snowden two years ago.

Along with Pocan and Massie, the Thursday gathering drew Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.). The lawmakers, many of them privacy zealots with libertarian leanings, discussed the USA Freedom Act, bipartisan legislation that would rein in the bulk collection of telephone records and reauthorize expiring anti-terror surveillance provisions in the PATRIOT Act.

Several lawmakers at the meeting argued that the compromise measure — which passed the House Judiciary Committee on a 25-2 vote last week and has the support of House GOP leaders — doesn’t go far enough.

“There are a lot of improvements that we would like to see jointly, from both the Democratic and Republican side,” Pocan said.

There’s no set plan yet on how to proceed. Lawmakers haven’t decided whether they want to introduce new legislation or rally behind amendments to the Judiciary-approved bill. But both sides want stronger reforms, which is why Amash came up with the idea to invite the trio of Democrats to the Liberty Caucus meeting.

“We are definitely making it a bipartisan effort because we believe there are people on both sides of the aisle who are interested in protecting the rights of Americans,” Amash said.

The USA Freedom Act is expected to come to the House floor for a vote this month. The bill would narrow the government’s collection of phone records only to individuals suspected of being a terrorist or connected to terror cells, while extending much of the existing surveillance authority. Telecommunications providers would still amass the telephone data, but the NSA could access certain records only after securing an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The civil liberties-minded members want several changes. Pocan said lawmakers are concerned that privacy language in the current legislation is tailored to fit current technologies — potentially putting data at risk of bulk collection if new technologies emerge. Pocan and Massie back a long-shot effort to repeal the PATRIOT Act entirely, while other lawmakers at the meeting have proposed cutting funding for the so-called backdoor searches by the NSA that don’t require warrants.

Other lawmakers who attended the meeting have proposed aggressive reforms to other surveillance authorities, including ones that allow for warrantless online surveillance of U.S. citizens. Members of the group have also called for an end to government-required “backdoors” in companies’ hardware and software products to give intelligence agencies easy access to data.

Across the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is eschewing reform. He offered a bill last week to extend the PATRIOT Act provisions for 5½ years without major changes, allowing the NSA to continue its bulk collection program, which he and supporters like Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) say is a vital tool to combat terrorists.

Amash and other civil libertarians in the House have been battling for years against NSA spying. The House passed a watered-down version of the USA Freedom Act in 2014, but reform proponents, including Amash and Lofgren, rejected the measure as too weak.

The latest version of the legislation is a collaboration between the House Judiciary Committee, which wants to restrict the latitude given to the government in the PATRIOT Act, and the House Intelligence Committee, which is wary of weakening the nation’s ability to collect data on potential terrorist plots.

The GOP leadership team, led by Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, has signed off on the reworked USA Freedom Act and is highly unlikely to give in to further changes. The bill is expected to easily pass the House.

The Obama administration backs ending the bulk collection program and has applauded the USA Freedom Act. That could set the stage for a clash between House GOP leaders and President Barack Obama on one side, and McConnell and other Republican senators on the other, with the bipartisan group of civil libertarians prodding for more reforms.

“The clean renewal [of the PATRIOT Act] that has been put forward by Sen. McConnell does not include those reforms” that the president supports, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said last week. “And the president was quite definitive about the need to make those kinds of reforms a top priority.”

Democrats and libertarian-minded Republicans want changes that go beyond what’s currently on the table, but it’s unclear whether they have the numbers. Massie and Amash are key players in a growing conservative bloc of the Republican caucus that in the past has forced Boehner and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to alter legislation that didn’t pass conservative muster.

“People are going to have to make a decision if there are enough real reforms in there to make it worth reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act,” Massie said. “I don’t think the reforms are significant enough.”

“The onus is really on [Republican and Democratic leaders] to have something in place if this is going to run out and they need to reauthorize something,” the Republican added. “We’re trying to figure out how to get a better, stronger [bill] that protects privacy rights.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has so far dismissed the idea of taking up the USA Freedom Act and has said he is looking at alternatives that balance the need for strong national security programs with the calls for civil liberties protections. The Senate is more likely to take up a bill introduced by McConnell and Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) that would reauthorize the expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act without changes to appease privacy proponents.

That legislation would grant the government authority to monitor potential terrorists — even if they are not directly connected to terrorist cells — and give the government’s spies the ability to use roving wiretaps on suspects if they are mobile.

The surveillance issue has kindled friendships among lawmakers who rarely see eye-to-eye. Pocan and Massie got to know one another when they had neighboring offices during their first terms in the House. They discovered an intersecting interest in privacy law.

“You’re seeing some of the same bedfellows here that you will on trade,” Pocan said, referring to bipartisan opposition to pending trade legislation. “I think it’s very healthy for us to work together.”