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Washington (CNN)
The government will stop collecting telephone metadata on millions of Americans after midnight Sunday, even after the Senate approved a key procedural motion to vote on a bill to reform that program.
The Senate entered a debate period late Sunday that will push beyond the midnight deadline, effectively ending the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program since it was first approved in 2006. That's when the government first used the post-9/11 passed Patriot Act as the legal basis for the information collecting program.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, took to the Senate floor after opposing the procedural vote to continue lambasting the NSA's domestic surveillance programs, pledging to offer amendments to the House-passed USA Freedom Act in a bid for further reforms. Paul had pledged Saturday to "force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program."
He acknowledged Sunday that "the bill will ultimately pass," but appeared to reassure his supporters, some of whom packed the Senate gallery.
RELATED: What happens when the Patriot Act provisions expire?
"The government after this bill passes will no longer collect your phone records," Paul said.
Counterterrorism officials will lose not just the bulk data collection program, but also the ability to obtain roving wiretaps to listen in on potential terror suspects, even if they change phones.
Law enforcement officials, though, will be allowed to continue to use roving wiretaps and to collect pinpointed data telecommunications companies and other businesses for ongoing investigations.
Those authorities will likely be restored as early as Wednesday when Republican leadership aides expect a final vote on the compromise bill -- the USA Freedom Act -- which overwhelmingly passed the House two weeks earlier.
But even so, Paul claimed a symbolic victory as he blocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from reauthorizing even just the less controversial expiring provisions of the Patriot Act for two weeks.
The Senate then voted 77-17 on Sunday night to cue up a vote on the USA Freedom Act after top Republicans staunchly opposed to changes to that program, including McConnell, reversed course.
Just a week earlier, that same procedural motion failed by three votes.
Read more,
Some bulk data collection to end - CNNPolitics.com
The government will stop collecting telephone metadata on millions of Americans after midnight Sunday, even after the Senate approved a key procedural motion to vote on a bill to reform that program.
The Senate entered a debate period late Sunday that will push beyond the midnight deadline, effectively ending the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program since it was first approved in 2006. That's when the government first used the post-9/11 passed Patriot Act as the legal basis for the information collecting program.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, took to the Senate floor after opposing the procedural vote to continue lambasting the NSA's domestic surveillance programs, pledging to offer amendments to the House-passed USA Freedom Act in a bid for further reforms. Paul had pledged Saturday to "force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program."
He acknowledged Sunday that "the bill will ultimately pass," but appeared to reassure his supporters, some of whom packed the Senate gallery.
RELATED: What happens when the Patriot Act provisions expire?
"The government after this bill passes will no longer collect your phone records," Paul said.
Counterterrorism officials will lose not just the bulk data collection program, but also the ability to obtain roving wiretaps to listen in on potential terror suspects, even if they change phones.
Law enforcement officials, though, will be allowed to continue to use roving wiretaps and to collect pinpointed data telecommunications companies and other businesses for ongoing investigations.
Those authorities will likely be restored as early as Wednesday when Republican leadership aides expect a final vote on the compromise bill -- the USA Freedom Act -- which overwhelmingly passed the House two weeks earlier.
But even so, Paul claimed a symbolic victory as he blocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from reauthorizing even just the less controversial expiring provisions of the Patriot Act for two weeks.
The Senate then voted 77-17 on Sunday night to cue up a vote on the USA Freedom Act after top Republicans staunchly opposed to changes to that program, including McConnell, reversed course.
Just a week earlier, that same procedural motion failed by three votes.
Read more,
Some bulk data collection to end - CNNPolitics.com
