He declined to say whether there were 60 votes to the pass the USA Freedom Act though. CONGRESS House, Senate Republicans square off over PATRIOT Act

House and Senate Republican leaders are locked in a standoff over one of the nation’s most controversial national security programs — with each chamber refusing to budge, the clock ticking and patience running low.

With key portions of the PATRIOT Act set to expire at the end of the month, House Republicans are signaling they won’t accept anything other than their USA Freedom Act, which would end the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection program and passed the chamber by an overwhelming majority last week.


But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly panned that proposal, and his leadership team is indicating the only thing that can clear the chamber is a temporary extension of current law, which would extend the NSA program revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden.

On Monday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) maintained the Senate had only one option: pass the House bill.

“I think when you get 338 votes, we’re meeting somebody in the middle,” McCarthy told reporters. “When you can get the Republicans and Democrats beyond veto-proof, when you can get a [Jim] Sensenbrenner and Devin Nunes and [Bob] Goodlatte and [John] Conyers and everybody, I think that’s a great bill for the Senate to take.”

But in interviews, senior Republican senators and aides expressed doubted that the proposal can pass the Senate, particularly given that McConnell is so staunchly opposed. He engineered a stunning filibuster of an earlier version of the House bill late last year when Democrats were in control, and he could do the same this time around.

In fact, some Senate Republicans aren’t even guaranteeing that they will hold a vote on the USA Freedom Act, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) weighing a filibuster and myriad procedural hoops to jump through before a surveillance bill of any kind can come to the Senate floor. They say the only solution is a short-term extension of surveillance law that allows the Senate time to hold a longer debate about intelligence tactics and national security.

“The problem is we don’t have time,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview. “Time is not our friend.”

For House and Senate Republicans who spent a frigid January retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania, trying to coordinate their agenda, the two wings of the GOP are so out of sync that they can’t even agree on a schedule.

The House is set to leave on Thursday for the Memorial Day recess, but it may take the Senate until Friday or later to vote on the bulk collection program. And McCarthy wouldn’t commit to keeping the House in session into the weekend to respond to whatever eventually passes the Senate.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican who’s worked closely with McCarthy to try to align Senate and House Republicans, said the uncertainty on the PATRIOT Act revolves around a math problem.

“The House is just in a very different place,” Thune said. “The key’s going to be whether that gets 60 over here. I don’t know that today, but if I were a betting man, I’d say it doesn’t.”

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who’s sponsored the Senate version of the House-passed surveillance bill, said the only choice left for the Senate is the USA Freedom Act — or letting the programs end altogether.

“I can’t quite figure it out,” Leahy said of McConnell’s strategy on the expiring PATRIOT Act provisions. “Because right now, we’re down to a point: We either have the House bill, or we have nothing at all. Interesting choices, aren’t they?”

Of course, the PATRIOT Act is just one of many headaches for Republicans in the Senate.

They are also racing on trade legislation and keep highway crews working past May 31. As he entered the Capitol for what will be a climactic workweek, McConnell said he will not allow key provisions of the PATRIOT Act and infrastructure policy to expire at the end of month, nor will he punt a contentious trade debate until after the recess.

“We’re certainly going to act on all three of them,” McConnell said. Asked whether that means the Senate will stay in until a deal is struck to extend the controversial surveillance language, McConnell responded: “Right.”

But the taciturn Republican leader declined to say whether there were 60 votes to pass the USA Freedom Act. McConnell has railed against that legislation, and on Sunday, he defended the data collection as “very important.” He’s introduced separate bills that would extend current surveillance law: one for 5½ years, the second for two months.

It’s not entirely clear whether there are 60 votes to pass either the House bill or a reauthorization for any length of time. Nearly every Democratic senator supports changes to the bulk collection programs, while Republicans are divided between that and a straight extension.

Most Republicans who support ending bulk data collection say they will oppose a straight re-up of current law.

“I’ve been fighting for the USA Freedom Act,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), one of the bill’s GOP co-sponsors. “I’d probably vote against an extension.”

Senior Republicans are counting on the impending Memorial Day holiday to force the Senate to quickly take up an extension of current law, but there are major complications: Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have threatened to slow down the surveillance legislation and possibly use a talking filibuster to blunt efforts to reauthorize the law.

The Senate can work quickly when put up against a deadline, although a single determined member can slow things to a crawl. Republicans’ goal is to finish the trade bill first, using the recess and potential political fallout from an expired national security law to motivate lawmakers to allow quick votes on the PATRIOT Act after that. Expiring provisions include the bulk data program, provisions to track lone-wolf terrorists and the use of roving wiretaps.

But opponents of this strategy say this time things will be different. Paul, a 2016 presidential hopeful who wants the PATRIOT Act repealed, said he would filibuster a short-term extension “unless there’s an open debate process and debate and amendment process.”

“I will no longer extend a badly flawed law,” Wyden said in an interview. “The idea of the people who kind of want the status quo is to back it up until the last minute and say: ‘My goodness, it’s a dangerous world.’”

Intelligence Committee leaders of each party — Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina and Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat — said they were discussing backup plans should both the House legislation and the clean reauthorization backed by Burr and McConnell fail. Neither offered details, although Burr indicated that at this point, he is willing to negotiate only on the duration of the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act provisions.

Feinstein said she would back the House bill, although she raised some concerns with the legislation — which puts the onus for data collection on the telecommunications companies rather than the NSA.

“There’s some of us that are concerned as to whether the telecoms will hold the data for at least two years, and that is an iffy thing,” she said. “We don’t know for sure one way or the other.”

McConnell seems prepared for the possibility that Wyden or Paul could try to block any effort to extend the PATRIOT Act provisions and came to the Senate floor on Monday afternoon to tell senators not to wander too far from the Capitol this week. He was reviving a familiar if often-ignored threat of his predecessor, now-Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who frequently warned senators of weekend work to motivate them to cooperate on quick votes to allow everyone to get home for the weekend. But McConnell said he wasn’t bluffing.

“I’m quite serious,” McConnell said. “I would advise against making any sort of travel arrangements until the path forward becomes clear.”

Jake Sherman contributed to this report.