Rep. Adam Schiff of California urged the Senate on Sunday to quickly resolve its standoff over the government’s snooping powers by passing a bill that has sailed through the House in a bipartisan vote.
Mr. Schiff, a top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said his chamber passed the USA Freedom Act in a 338-88 vote because the legislation strikes the right balance in reining in the National Security Agency’s sweeping powers.
The Senate left town early Saturday facing a June 1 deadline to extend the NSA’s phone-snooping program and end all bulk data collection.
“What happened this week in the Senate, I think, was a catastrophe,” Mr. Schiff told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
The majority of senators supported the USA Freedom Act, which would have extended all of the Patriot Act powers, though it would have ruled out bulk collection under Section 215 — instead limiting data gathering to specific individuals or groups.
But a fractured chamber couldn’t resolve their differences, leaving the Patriot Act in limbo after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed for a full extension of the act and its bulk collection powers, only to meet substantial pushback from civil libertarians such as Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican.
President Obama, who previously had defended the NSA’s bulk snooping, has now embraced changes, and on Friday the White House lashed out at GOP leaders for failing to back the USA Freedom Act or to devise an acceptable alternative.
“That’s the only way to prevent a real interruption in this program,” Mr. Schiff said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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