WASHINGTON -- For the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, Congress curtailed the U.S. National Security Agency's authority to track suspected terrorists as lawmakers struggled to restore approval for mass collection of phone records and other surveillance methods.
No solution was likely before Tuesday at the earliest. The high-stakes drama played out as Congress debated significant changes prompted by the disclosures of Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who revealed the phone records collection and other main surveillance programs.
While intelligence officials publicly warned of danger, they said they were not deeply concerned with a lapse of a few days or weeks, given that the authorities remain available in pending investigations. What they most fear is a legislative impasse that could doom the programs permanently.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a presidential candidate, took credit for blocking the Senate from extending the surveillance powers in an extraordinary Sunday session. That forced the Senate to take up a different bill passed by the House of Representatives, which then stalled Monday as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other leading Republicans sought changes.
At the Senate opened business Monday, McConnell announced that he would seek three amendments to the House bill, which would end NSA's collection phone records after a six month transition while allowing the agency to search the records held by the phone companies.
"We'll have a vote on that legislation as soon as we can," he said, without specifying a timeline.
The House-passed bill, which President Barack Obama supports, would alter the bulk collection program so that phone companies, rather than the NSA, would collect the records after a six-month transition period. The agency would be authorized to search the material, but only with permission from the courts.
Obama supports the USA Freedom Act, which ends NSA bulk collection of U.S. phone records but allows the agency to search records held by the phone companies. That bill, which preserves the other expiring provisions, passed the House overwhelmingly May 13, but failed to pass the Senate.
The lapse in authority affected not only the NSA's ability to collect mass phone records. It also meant at least a temporary end to the FBI's authority to gather business records in terrorism and espionage investigations, and to more easily eavesdrop on a suspect who is discarding cellphones to avoid surveillance.
"We call on the Senate to ensure this irresponsible lapse in authorities is as short-lived as possible," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement issued Sunday night.
Attempts to approve a renewal of authority failed late Sunday, thwarted by Paul.
"This is what we fought the Revolution over, are we going to so blithely give up our freedom? ... I'm not going to take it anymore," he said. Supporters wearing red "Stand With Rand" T-shirts packed the spectator gallery.
Paul's actions angered fellow Republicans, who watched helplessly as anti-terrorism authority lapsed only four months after they took control of the Senate.
Sen. John McCain complained to reporters that Paul places "a higher priority on his fundraising and his ambitions than on the security of the nation."
And Rep. Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, issued a statement that said: "Having gone past the brink, the Senate must now embrace the necessity of acting responsibly."
The FBI's use of the Bush-era Patriot Act to collect hotel, travel, credit card, banking and other business records in national security investigations would also be extended under the House bill. Law enforcement officials say the collection of those business records is more valuable than the better-known bulk phone collections program. Ongoing investigations would be permitted to continue even though authority for the programs has lapsed.
Rebooting the phone collections program would take about a day.
CIA Director John Brennan was among those warning that letting the authorities lapse, even for a time, will make America less safe.
