NSA ruling puts lawmakers on edge

A court ruling against the National Security Agency’s phone data collection sparked a war of words between the Senate’s leaders over the future of the program -- with little hope of a quick breakthrough. With lawmakers facing a May 31 deadline to extend or reform parts of the PATRIOT Act, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) both refused to cede ground. "According to the CIA, had these authorities been in place more than a decade ago, they would have likely prevented 9/11,” Majority Leader McConnell said on the floor of the chamber. He called soon-to-expire provisions of the PATRIOT Act “ideally suited for the terrorist threat we face in 2015.” Minority Leader Reid, meantime, called for an immediate vote on the USA Freedom Act, a surveillance reform bill advancing in the House that would end the telephone metadata program. “Instead of bringing the bipartisan NSA reform bill up for a vote, Sen. McConnell is trying to force the Senate to extend the bulk data collection practices that were ruled illegal today,” he said. “It would be the height of irresponsibility to extend these illegal spying powers when we could pass bipartisan reform into law instead.”