CRI听力:US Senate Blamed for Curtailing Surveillance System

US lawmakers have been struggling to restore the controversial surveillance program, one of the key provisions of the Patriot Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks.

The secret program was exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and triggered an uproar among rights groups blasting it as an intrusion of privacy.

Congress has been debating significant changes to the law, trying to replace it with a more targeted system.

New legislation called the USA Freedom Act has already been passed in the House of Representatives, but it's now stalled in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other leading Republicans are seeking changes.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest is blaming the Senate's failure to pass legislation for bringing an unnecessary risk to the country.

"They've have had a year and a half to exercise that prerogative and now that they have blown through the deadline. I think most reasonable people would assume that that is a privilege and a right that they, for the good of the country, should relinquish so that we can enact a piece of legislation that has the strong support of Democrats and Republicans, it has the strong support of our national security professionals and of course has the strong support of the President of the United States. And rather than getting into additional political gamesmanship."

The legal lapse also means at least a temporary end to the FBI's authority to gather business records in terrorism and espionage investigations.

Experts believe a vote will get to the Senate floor sometime this week.

But Harley Geiger with the Center for Democracy and Technology warns there night be no early solution in sight.

"If the Senate majority leader weakens the USA Freedom Act, then it has to go back to the House and then whatever the House passes it may be different and has to go back to the Senate. This could be over in as short as a couple days, or it could be over in weeks, months. It is very uncertain. But, they could have ended it last night. They could have ended weeks ago and they have chosen not to."

President Barack 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 phone companies.

For CRI, I'm Chloe Lyme .