Key Parts of Patriot Act Expire Temporarily as Senate Moves Toward Limits on Spying
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON — The government’s authority to sweep up vast quantities of phone records in the hunt for terrorists expired at 12:01 a.m. Monday after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, blocked an extension of the program during an extraordinary and at times caustic Sunday session of the Senate.

Still, the Senate signaled that it was ready to curtail the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection program with likely passage this week of legislation that would shift the storage of telephone records from the government to the phone companies. The House overwhelmingly passed that bill last month. Senators voted, 77 to 17, on Sunday to take up the House bill.

Mr. Paul’s stand may have forced the temporary expiration of parts of the post-9/11 Patriot Act used by the National Security Agency to collect phone records, but he was helped by the miscalculation of Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, who sent the Senate on a weeklong vacation after blocking the House bill before Memorial Day.

Mr. McConnell, also of Kentucky, relented Sunday, setting up a final round of votes on Tuesday or Wednesday that will most likely send a compromise version of the House bill to President Obama for his signature. Even Mr. Paul, using the procedural weapon of an objection, conceded he could not stop that.

“Little by little, we’ve allowed our freedom to slip away,” Mr. Paul said during a lengthy floor soliloquy.

The expiration of surveillance authority demonstrates a profound shift in American attitudes since the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when national security was pre-eminent in both parties. Fourteen years after that attack, even as American conflicts continue abroad, a swell of privacy concerns stemming from both the vast expansion of communication systems and an increasing distrust of government’s use of data has turned those concerns on their head.

While it would represent a retrenchment on the part of the government, it does not end the argument over the dual imperatives of security and individual liberty brought to light by Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency.

The expiration of three key provisions of the Patriot Act means that, for now, the N.S.A. will no longer collect newly created logs of Americans’ phone calls in bulk. It also means that the F.B.I. cannot invoke the Patriot Act to obtain, for new investigations, wiretap orders that follow a suspect who changes phones, wiretap orders for a “lone wolf” terrorism suspect not linked to a group, or court orders to obtain business records relevant to an investigation.

However, the Justice Department may invoke a so-called grandfather clause to keep using those powers for investigations that had started before June 1, and there are additional workarounds investigators may use to overcome the lapse in the authorizations.

Mr. McConnell and other national security hawks who failed to continue the program badly underestimated the shift in the national mood, which has found its voice with Democrats and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. The moment also put him at odds with Mr. Paul, whom he has endorsed for president.

“I remain determined to work toward the best outcome for the American people possible under the circumstances,” Mr. McConnell said. “This is where we are, colleagues — a House-passed bill with some serious flaws, and an inability to get a short-term extension to improve the House bill.”

Mr. Paul’s effort clearly angered many of his Republican colleagues, who met without him an hour before the Senate began to vote Sunday night. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who sparred with Mr. Paul on the floor over procedure, said later that Mr. Paul was not fit for the White House job he seeks. “I’ve said on many occasions that I believe he would be the worst candidate we could put forward,” he said.

Even as senators were trickling into the Capitol from the airport, Mr. McConnell attempted to extend some aspects of the law. He asked senators to consider a two-week continuation of the federal authority to track a “lone wolf” terrorism suspect not connected to a state sponsor and to conduct “roving” surveillance of a suspect, rather than of a phone number alone, to combat terrorists who frequently discard cellphones.

But Mr. Paul objected, and Mr. McConnell denounced from the Senate floor what he called “a campaign of demagoguery and disinformation” about the program.

Mr. McConnell then moved to a second option, a procedural move to take up the bill passed by the House, which he said the Senate would amend this week. It was unclear Sunday how many amendments, including any from Mr. Paul, would be considered and whether any could pass the Senate or be adopted by the House.

The House bill would overhaul the Patriot Act and scale back the bulk collection of phone records revealed by Mr. Snowden. Under the provisions of the House bill, sweeps that had operated under the guise of so-called national security letters issued by the F.B.I. would end. The data would instead be stored by the phone companies and could be retrieved by intelligence agencies only after approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.

President Obama and his director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., have made dire warnings in recent days about the perils of letting the law expire and called for immediate approval of a surveillance bill passed by the House. The C.I.A. director, John O. Brennan, echoed the president on Sunday during an interview on the CBS show “Face the Nation,” saying there had “been a little too much political grandstanding.”

In a statement issued Sunday night, the White House said: “We call on the Senate to ensure this irresponsible lapse in authorities is as short-lived as possible. On a matter as critical as our national security, individual senators must put aside their partisan motivations and act swiftly. The American people deserve nothing less.”

Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, also urged the Senate to act, citing the threat of groups like the Islamic State. “Al Qaeda, ISIL and other terrorists around the globe continue to plot attacks on America and our allies,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement. “Anyone who is satisfied with letting this critical intelligence capability go dark isn’t taking the terrorist threat seriously.”

Mr. McConnell had sought to get a series of short-term extensions passed so that Congress could continue to work on a compromise — like giving the phone companies more time to adapt to the new law — but that effort collapsed under the objections of Mr. Paul and two Democrats, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. Further, members of the House rejected extending the current law, given the support for their bill.

After a middle-of-the-night vote for a short-term extension failed on the Saturday before Memorial Day, senators left for a weeklong recess as the clock ticked. Senate Republican leaders sought a compromise that would make a new bill acceptable to both hawkish lawmakers and Mr. Paul. “I still have deep concerns,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.

Over the week, negotiators on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees had laid out a series of options to revise the bipartisan USA Freedom Act, including the addition of a certification process to ensure that the technology is ready to move metadata storage to the phone companies and allowing for a longer transition to phone company storage of the data. The House negotiators were skeptical of all efforts.

Democrats were critical of Mr. McConnell on Sunday. “The job of the leader is to have a plan,” Senator Harry Reid of Nevada said on the Senate floor. “In this case, it is clear the majority leader simply didn’t have a plan.”

NSA禁蒐公民通聯紀錄

美國聯邦參議院二黨議員5月31日未能針對延長「愛國者法案」效期的事宜達成協議後，法案將自當天午夜起失效，導致美國的國安作為可能陷入混亂。

一旦法案失效，美國國家安全局（NSA）再也無權蒐集美國公民的電話通聯紀錄。情報官員說，後果等於激進組織獲勝；公民自由團體則對NSA這項曾經不為外界所知的計畫至少暫時中止表示喝采。

這項計畫將在近日內檢討。根據聯邦眾議院通過的替代法案「美國自由法案」，它很可能全盤修改。參院多數黨領袖麥康尼爾表示，由於多數的參議員反對延長「愛國者法案」，眾院法案是避免相關計畫終結的唯一選擇。

參院曾經提出「美國自由法案」，卻未能在「愛國者法案」效期屆滿前立案。參院情報委員會主席柏爾表示：「無論是延長法案效期或通過另一項法案，今晚已確定不可能達成任何協議。」

參院因為二黨未能針對保護或改革重要反恐環節的事宜達成妥協而迄未通過「美國自由法案」。據指出，參院可能2日或3日表決該法案。「美國自由法案」規定，NSA不得再大舉蒐集美國人民的通聯紀錄，如欲取用電信業者保留的特定紀錄，必須取得法院同意。

除有關蒐集美國公民通聯紀錄的條文，「愛國者法案」另外2項比較不為人知的條文也同時失效，包括追蹤與外國無關的「孤狼」恐怖主義嫌犯，以及允許美國政府監聽不斷變更手機門號的可疑分子。白宮支持的眾院版全盤延長這2項條文的效期，同時規定電信業者必須保留民眾的通聯紀錄，以備政府當局隨時搜查。

中情局長布瑞南表示，即使「愛國者法案」暫時失效也足以導致美國面臨更嚴重的恐怖威脅，相關工具是確保美國公民生命財產安全所不可或缺。他並強調，遜尼派「伊斯蘭國」等激進組織隨時「密切」注意相關發展，「伺機作案」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/us/politics/senate-nsa-surveillance-usa-freedom-act.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/usa/20150601/c01nsa/zh-hant/

2015-06-01．聯合晚報．A6．國際焦點．編譯陳世欽