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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Senate Blocks Patriot Act Reform Bill

    Up All Night: Senate Blocks Patriot Act Reform Bill

    Attempt to move forward on House-passed USA Freedom Act fails in marathon session


    Senator Rand Paul speaks to guests at a campaign event at Bloomsbury Farm on April 25, 2015 in Atkins, Iowa.(Scott Olson/Getty Images)


    May 22, 2015

    New day, same result.
    Shortly past midnight on Saturday, the Senate tried and failed to move forward on legislation that would limit the federal government's sweeping domestic spying powers, as the deadline to act on the future of the Patriot Act draws nearer.The vote was 57-42, just short of the 60-vote threshold necessary to move forward in the Senate due to stiff opposition and last-minute whipping Friday night into Saturday from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP defense hawks. It would have allowed the Senate to proceed with the House-passed USA Freedom Act, which would end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of call data.Now, the Senate has to figure out where to go from here. Senators also easily rejected a motion to move ahead on a two-month extension of the Patriot Act's spying authorities.

    The House has left for the Memorial Day recess and the Section 215 authority of the Patriot Act expires June 1.
    Both sides appear dug in.

    Sen. Rand Paul vowed to reporters and on Twitter to continue blocking efforts to extend the Patriot Act, a pledge that comes as a second act to his 10-and-a-half hour floor takedown of government surveillance earlier in the week.
    "Will be seeing everyone overnight it seems," Paul tweeted earlier in the evening. "My filibuster continues to end NSA illegal spying."Paul told reporters he is still negotiating with leadership. "We're not quite at a point where they'll agree to let us have the amendments," he said . "We're going to run the clock, and they're going to have to either try and work with us or we'll be here all weekend."During a lag in between votes on the fast-track trade bill earlier Friday, Paul and McConnell talked one-on-one briefly in the middle of the Senate floor as other lawmakers chatted around them. Their conversation appeared congenial, but Paul soon walked away and exited to chamber. Minutes later, his Twitter account announced his holdup, and McConnell announced a delay on the floor soon after to a vote that would happen after midnight.Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., a co-sponsor of the USA Freedom Act, admitted that Paul is getting on the nerves of his fellow senators."It's causing some frustration for some members," Heller told reporters.

    "Sen. Paul is going to do what Sen. Paul wants to do, and everyone lets him do it. Sometimes it looks more like presidential politics than anything else.
    "He has a position, he has a point," he added. "We don't disagree with him, but there are probably other ways he could be effective, or more effective."And Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill wasn't happy either, tweeting: "Hey #StandwithRand.He's not filibustering but using Senate rules to grandstand. Frustrating for those of us who actually want to reform NSA."Majority Whip John Cornyn refused to criticize Paul's maneuver, saying that a senator's "greatest tool is to object to unanimous consent."Cornyn said a deal was being worked on to allow a very short-term extension of the Patriot Act's expiring authorities—shorter than the two-month option currently on the table—if a promise is made to Paul to allow his amendments consideration."There has been some discussion about a shorter patch in exchange for some unanimous consent at some point when we return from the weeklong recess," Cornyn said.Paul outlined his amendment demands during his talk-a-thon on Wednesday. His edits to the Freedom Act would prohibit the government from mandating that tech firms create so-called surveillance "backdoors" in their products, which the NSA could access. They would also close a loophole that allows back-door searches, referring to the NSA's practice of u searching through foreigners' data to "incidentally" collect information on U.S. citizens who correspond with the target.Paul also wants a "constitutional advocate" to be present in order to argue against the government in the FISA Court, and expand protections on customers' data held by third-parties companies such as Google or Facebook.Other proposals would require courts to approve national security letters to "make them more like warrants," allow for U.S. citizens to appeal surveillance orders handed down by FISA Court, and implement limitations to the Reagan-era Executive Order 12333, which some privacy advocates say allows the NSA the majority of its spying power.When it comes to reauthorizing bulk data collection, nearly a dozen conservative senators are stuck in a tug of war between McConnell and their libertarian-minded colleagues, reform advocates, and constituents back home.Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte, Joni Ernst, Tim Scott, Mark Kirk, Pat Toomey, Bill Cassidy, and Ron Johnson were still as of midnight not publicly saying where they stand on the legislation, putting the future of the NSA program in limbo.And they are also looking to get out of town, something McConnell has used to sway votes. "McConnell and his staff forcefully made the case that a vote for USA Freedom was a vote to cancel recess," a Republican aide said.This story is breaking and will be updated.

    http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/...-Paul-20150522
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  2. #2
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    The Patriot Act should never have been made law, surely not with so many civil rights set aside. I think this and other 10 "trial periods" allow junior high students to become voting age, and of course, they don't understand what the argument is about or the importance of the argument. If war powers acts have any justification, the act should not have a lifetime exceeding 18 months. Done with a ten year life, it allows young persons to become of age and never knew their civil rights had been diminished. That is not fair to at least three genre rations.

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