US surveillance powers temporarily expire

US powers to bulk collect American’s phone records expired at midnight (04:00 GMT) Monday 1 June as Senate fail to reach a deal to extend the Patriot Act.

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul played a key role in blocking the extension of the law, as he interrupted his Senate colleagues and threw up procedural roadblocks. Questioning the surveillance powers, Paul said "This is what we fought the revolution over, are we going to so blithely give up our freedom?"

The monitoring of phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA) started in secret after the events of September 11, 2001, and was later authorised in secret by a court under section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, the provision that expired early Monday morning. The continuation of wide spread data collection was exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.

Despite the Patriot Act expiring, the Senate voted to advance the White-House backed Freedom Act. A senate vote on the Freedom Act can come no sooner than 01:00 local time on Tuesday 02/06, and will likely approve a new form of data collection.

After the Senates rare Sunday session, Paul tweeted “I came here to defend the Bill of Rights, not to be popular”. The lapse in surveillance is likely to only last two days, until the vote on the Freedom act. Paul acknowledged this, saying “Mark my words: The battle’s not over… It will only be temporary. They will ultimately get their way”.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued a statement after the Senate adjourned Sunday that called on senators to “ensure this irresponsible lapse in authorities is as short-lived as possible.” The statement said: “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.”

CIA Director John Brennan appeared on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ and said that the expiring programs are “integral to making sure that we’re able to stop terrorists in their tracks”.

He added: “I think that there has been a little too much political grandstanding and crusading for ideological causes that have skewed the debate on this issue… But these tools are important to American lives… This is something that we can’t afford to do right now, because if you look at the horrific terrorist attacks and violence that is being perpetrated around the globe, we need to keep our country safe.”