Sen. Tom Cotton is preparing for battle against Sen. Rand Paul and the GOP’s libertarian wing over the USA Patriot Act and the power of government to conduct spying operations domestically and abroad.

The 37-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, who vaulted to the Senate this year after a single term in the House, is maneuvering to build support for extending existing surveillance authority for the U.S. government — without the additional safeguards civil libertarians want.


The Arkansas senator, who caused an international firestorm last month with his controversial letter to Iranian leaders, has spent many recent Fridays in Washington at FBI and National Security Agency headquarters, meeting with senior intelligence officials and administration lawyers to build his case for a clean extension of three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act. With the support of GOP leaders, he’s serving as an emissary on the issue to GOP freshmen who are weighing whether to extend the controversial law. And he is seeking to sell his views on surveillance to Republicans from libertarian-minded states through classified briefings conducted by senior intelligence officials.

The emergence of Cotton, an unbending hawk celebrated by neoconservatives as a next-generation party leader on national defense, shows how intent Republican leaders are to prevail over the Paul wing of the GOP. Libertarian-leaning Republicans want to scale back — if not repeal — the Patriot Act before key provisions are set to expire May 31.

In an interview, Cotton warned that he’s determined not to allow views like Paul’s to take hold in today’s Republican party.

“Almost every Republican elected last year believes that America is strong and safe when America is leading the world,” Cotton said in an interview in his Senate office. “And I don’t think many Republicans will want to see critical programs expire that will reopen intelligence gaps from the 1990s.”

Cotton’s move — which comes after 46 senators signed onto his open letter to Iran’s senior leadership warning against making a nuclear deal with the United States — showcases how a younger crop of junior senators are exerting new influence within a body traditionally dominated by long-serving veterans. For Cotton, who doesn’t even have a permanent office yet — he works in cramped basement quarters that lack a bathroom — the rise has been sudden.

“It’s been an extraordinary display from a new senator,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “Starting with the 47-senator letter to the Ayatollah and now some pretty strong views on policy. The obvious question is how it goes over in his caucus: Are they going to make him the shadow secretary of state or the shadow secretary of defense?”

The latest fight concerns three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who chairs the Select Committee on Intelligence, offered a bill this week that would extend the provisions for five-and-a-half years. The bill would cover the bulk collection of phone records under the Patriot Act’s 215 program, which generated enormous controversy when it was revealed by leaker Edward Snowden.

The bill also would prolong two other measures : A so-called “lone wolf” provision that allows the government to surveil potential terrorists who aren’t directly connected to terrorist cells; and a section that allows the feds to use roving wiretaps to monitor suspects who rapidly change location or communication device.

“He’s taking on the task to make sure all his class members are educated on what the issue is and why it’s so important,” Burr said, referring to Cotton’s discussions with the 11 other Republicans and one Democratic senator who were first elected in 2014. “And that’s invaluable to the process; they are going to be educated, versus just shooting form the hip.”

GOP leaders say they will push a straight extension of the law if no better alternative emerges. But the GOP House, which has a contingent of vocal libertarians, is pushing a plan that would limit most bulk data collections and impose other reforms. Moreover, a number of Democrats and some Republicans want further safeguards, including to shine light on telephone companies’ participation in domestic surveillance and reform the secret court created under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

President Barack Obama has endorsed changes to the Patriot Act intended to strengthen civil liberties, and top intelligence Democrats fret that Obama does not want to be jammed at the end of May with a bill that doesn’t include privacy and transparency reforms.

“The president will have a problem with it,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Obama backed those policy changes late last year in a bipartisan bill known as the USA Freedom Act, but it was blocked by a stern McConnell whipping operation. That failed vote set the stage for the new GOP Senate. Republican leaders are hoping the arrival of hawkish Republicans like Cotton will help usher through an extension of the controversial law.

Yet several of the GOP’s libertarian-leaning members said this week they’ll oppose any Patriot Act legislation if it fails to address concerns that the government is sweeping up data about billions of phone calls as part of a program created to help root out terrorists.

“I don’t support anything in the Patriot Act,” Paul, the Kentucky Republican and presidential candidate, said in an interview. “I want to repeal the whole thing.”

Cotton responded calmly. “This is just where Rand and I disagree,” he said. Asked if he would support Paul if he won the Republican nomination, Cotton said, ““I’m not getting involved in presidential politics right now.”

The challenge for Cotton and Republican leaders is that a number of freshmen are well versed in the Patriot Act after having served in the House — and they’ve backed safeguards in the past.

In May 2014, the House voted on an NSA reform bill that would have outlawed bulk data collection but was viewed as watered down by privacy advocates. That vote split the class of new GOP senators that came over from the House. James Lankford of Oklahoma, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Cotton voted for it — while Steve Daines of Montana and Cory Gardner of Colorado opposed it. The bill did not become law.

In an interview this week, Gardner said he wanted that bill to do more to protect civil liberties and wants to see an “adequate balance” now.

“He has been trying to answer any questions,” Gardner said of Cotton. “He just sees himself as someone who can play a role in this.”

Like Gardner, Daines hails from a libertarian-leaning state where passion over privacy rights runs high. And like Gardner, Daines remains skeptical about a straight extension, even as he’s discussed the matter privately with Cotton.

“I want to make sure we protect the privacy and the freedoms of the American people,” Daines said. “We’ve got to ensure that this is a very, very high priority as we look at the Patriot Act going forward.”

But Cotton said the Obama administration has already taken a range of safeguards in the aftermath of the Snowden revelations. He said there is no need to codify them into law because the intelligence community already addresses privacy concerns administratively and adheres closely to limits imposed by the White House.

“That’s unneeded, and it also ties the hands of not only the commander-in-chief but also the intelligence professionals,” Cotton said. “Why would you codify a set of safeguards you might want to change as technology evolves and you face new risks of privacy, in addition to changing safeguards that might need to be relaxed in an emergency situation?”

Cotton became the youngest senator after trouncing incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor. A Harvard law school graduate, Cotton developed his hawkish views in combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and working at a unit servicing military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.

McConnell was the first person to encourage Cotton to run for the Senate last year. When he jumped in, he immediately cleared the GOP field as tea party groups united behind him due to his sharply conservative voting record in the House.

His demeanor is serious, a contrast to other back-slapping pols in the chummy Senate. A lanky 6-foot-5, Cotton walks briskly through the halls of the Capitol, rarely making time for chit chat.

When he learned he would be appointed to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in January, Cotton moved quickly to deepen his understanding of U.S. surveillance programs, knowing he had to be prepared to stiffen his party’s resolve with the provisions about to expire.

“Sometimes these things are driven by events,” Cotton said, when asked if he expected to be at the center of major national security fights as soon as he became elected senator.

With his wife, Anna, expecting their first child any day, Cotton’s travels back to Arkansas have been limited. That’s given him extra time in Washington to build ties with the intelligence community. He has held more than a dozen conversations with senior administration officials, including NSA Director Mike Rogers, FBI Director James Comey and Nick Rasmussen, deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He has met with operatives responsible for the surveillance program at the NSA headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., while also consulting with FBI agents to see how they implement their roving wiretap and lone-wolf authorities.

“I’ve met with every person from the directors of these agencies down to the newest [employees] who are executing the program, and they’re all hardworking Americans who are doing a critical job, who understand the scrutiny they face and have tremendous degrees of safeguards on them,” said Cotton, who also sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Cotton is helping to organize classified briefings between the 13-member freshmen class and special agents who run the programs to convince senators “there is absolutely no content collected in these programs, there’s no personally identifiable information, there’s no surveillance of telephone calls.”

Yet some remain skeptical.

“I do think there needs to be some sort of reforms,” said Lankford, a freshman from Oklahoma who who also sits on the Intelligence Committee.

As Burr and McConnell were drafting their bill, Cotton had a good sense of where the leaders were moving with their proposal. By contrast, other more senior members were caught off guard.

“It’s news to me and I’m on the Intel Committee,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). “I’m surprised Chairman Burr didn’t tell us. He apparently chose not to. I don’t know what his plans are.”

But if Cotton had his way, this would be the last debate Congress ever has on the matter.

“I personally would like to see a permanent reauthorization … so we don’t continue to have these debates and take up the time and resources and energy at agencies like the FBI and NSA every few years,” Cotton said. “But I think a five-and-a-half year authorization is appropriate.”