Congress has until March 15 to extend three provisions of the USA Freedom Act dealing with lone wolf surveillance, roving wiretaps and a controversial phone records program that allows the government to request phone metadata.

"My own preference is to extend these three or four expiring authorities ... but there are differences among my members and among the Democrats on the way forward. Whether we can resolve those and pass new legislation is unclear. If we're unable to resolve our differences my preference would be for another extension," McConnell said.

Key senators signaled on Tuesday that they would support a short-term extension of soon-to-expire surveillance programs if lawmakers are not able to break the stalemate by the mid-March deadline.Meanwhile, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman(R-N.C.) said he would support a short-term extension "if that's all you get."