WASHINGTON (AP) - House leaders are pressing the Senate to take up a bill that ends the National Security Agency’s collection of American telephone records but preserves other surveillance powers.
Senators are divided, and time is running out before three significant counterterrorism provisions expire June 1.
House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi want the Senate to take up the USA Freedom Act, which the House passed last week by a 338-88 vote.
The bill would end the NSA’s collection and storage of domestic calling records and renew two unrelated surveillance powers commonly used by the FBI to track spies and terrorists.
The House has finished it business for the week, and if the Senate doesn’t act, the surveillance provisions are set to expire at 12:01 a.m. on June 1.
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