Schiff: House unlikely to support two-month Patriot Act extension

Erin Kelly | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday he does not believe the House will support Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's last-minute push for a two-month extension of the Patriot Act.

Three key sections of the sweeping anti- terrorism law, passed after 9/11, are set to expire June 1 unless the Senate acts this week. The House has already passed an extension of the bill through 2019 with major changes to rein in the government's surveillance powers.

House members would have to approve any short-term extension that the Senate may pass this week. Both chambers are scheduled to be in recess next week.

"I'd be very reluctant to support an extension beyond a couple of days," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. "I think it's a very big question mark about whether there'd be the votes in the House for any extension beyond that which is necessary to do an immediate fix. There are lots of people in the House who are prepared just to have the (Patriot Act) sections expire."

Schiff's remarks underscore the dramatic difference between the Republican-led House and Senate on the issues of surveillance and privacy.

The House voted 338-88 last week to approve the bipartisan USA Freedom Act, which bars the National Security Agency from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to continue to collect the phone records of millions of Americans not suspected of any terrorist activity. The secret NSA program was exposed in 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, prompting efforts in Congress to stop it because of concerns that it violates the privacy rights of innocent Americans. A federal appeals court ruled earlier this month that the NSA program is illegal.

However, McConnell opposes the USA Freedom Act, saying that the government should not be stripped of any of its surveillance powers at a time when there are growing terrorist threats from the Islamic State and other militant groups. McConnell, R-Ky., had hoped to push through a five-year extension of the Patriot Act with no changes to the law. However, he does not appear to have the votes to advance that plan, so he is now looking to pass a two-month extension this week to give him more time to try to work out a deal with senators who want an end to the NSA's mass surveillance program.

He also promised Tuesday to allow a vote on the USA Freedom Act. The bill's supporters say they believe the bill would attract a majority of senators, but it's not clear whether it could garner the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

"I certainly think we ought to allow a vote on the House-passed bill," McConnell told reporters. "If there are not enough votes to pass that, then we need to look at an alternative. And I am not making a prediction right now about how it comes out."



Letting the Patriot Act expire "is not a responsible thing to do," McConnell said.



"The most important thing is to make sure we still have a program, a program that works, and helps protect the American people from attacks," he said. "That's the bottom line here. And we're going to work toward addressing that this week and we'll see how it turns out."



Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the third highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said McConnell should take the House action to heart.

"It's not often that the House takes the lead to do something in a bipartisan way and do it in the right way, but in this case they have, and Senator McConnell should follow their lead," Schumer said.

There is no way the House would ever agree to a long-term extension of the law without changes, Schiff said. And even a short-term extension that lasts longer than 24-48 hours may not win approval, Schiff said.

"If it's an effort to kick the can down the road, I don't think that's going to fly in the House," Schiff said.

Schiff, who voted for the USA Freedom Act, said it's possible that the House might agree to a long-term extension of other sections of the Patriot Act as long as Section 215 is not included. He said he does not want to see all three sections of the Patriot Act expire for good.

The other two sections of the law include provisions that give the government expanded ability to track potential "lone wolf" attackers and provisions that allow agents to obtain court orders to perform surveillance on multiple unidentified devices in order to track suspects who switch from one phone to another.

The White House has come out in support of the USA Freedom Act but has said it does not want to see the other Patriot Act powers expire.

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Contributing: Susan Davis