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The Senate cleared a nearly four-month extension of intelligence programs that expired on Sunday as part of a deal that will also allow for votes on broader surveillance reforms. The Senate had been expected to hold an initial procedural vote Monday on the House-passed bill that paired extension of the three expired USA Freedom Act provisions with some changes to the court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Instead, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came to the floor minutes before the scheduled vote and passed a 77-day extension of the three USA Freedom Act provisions. The extension...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is taking on a familiar role as a thorn in the side of leadership as Congress barrels toward a surveillance deadline with no deal in sight. Paul, a libertarian-minded Republican, is pushing for broader surveillance court reforms to be included as part of any bill that reauthorizes or extends the expiring provisions of the USA Freedom Act, a 2015 law that overhauled the country’s intelligence programs. "The time is ripe now. It’s an inflection point. You’ve got Republicans coming around to this," Paul said. "I think even the powers that be in the Senate, the Republicans...

Democrat Senator Ron Wydon (D-OR) ripped CNN contributor and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Wednesday for continuing to lie about his famous lie to the American public. In March 2013 Director of National Intelligence James Clapper went before the US Senate and lied about government spying. Senator Ron Wydon asked Clapper if the NSA collects any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans? Director Clapper replied, “No, sir … not wittingly.” This was a lie. Clapper was never condemned or punished for lying under oath to the US Senate. This more...

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Wednesday slammed former National Intelligence Director James Clapper for claiming he did not purposely lie to Congress when asked about an NSA mass surveillance program in March 2013, saying he sent the longtime intelligence official the question ahead of the hearing. “James Clapper needs to stop making excuses for lying to the American people about mass surveillance. To be clear: I sent him the question in advance. I asked him to correct the record afterward. He chose to let the lie stand,” the Oregon Democrat responded to Clapper’s excuse in a tweet.

Some lawmakers would like to see the Justice Department prosecute former spy chief James Clapper for inaccurate testimony to Congress about domestic surveillance before it's too late. Privacy-conscious critics say looming five-year statutes of limitation for perjury and making false statements — establishing a March 12 deadline for charges — make an urgent case for action, and that nonprosecution would set a dangerous precedent that impedes oversight and executive-branch accountability. Clapper, director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, testified during a March 2013 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that the NSA was "not wittingly” collecting “any type of data at...

Some lawmakers would like to see the Justice Department prosecute former spy chief James Clapper for inaccurate testimony to Congress about domestic surveillance before it's too late. Privacy-conscious critics say looming five-year statutes of limitation for perjury and making false statements — establishing a March 12 deadline for charges — make an urgent case for action, and that nonprosecution would set a dangerous precedent that impedes oversight and executive-branch accountability. Clapper, director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, testified during a March 2013 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that the NSA was "not wittingly” collecting “any type of data at...

Before the signing of the USA Freedom Act in June 2015, one of the NSA's most controversial programs was the mass collection of telephonic metadata from millions of Americans — the information about calls, including the telephone numbers involved, the time and the duration but not the calls' content — under a broad interpretation of the Patriot Act's Section 215. From this large "haystack," as officials have called it, NSA analysts could get approval to run queries on specific numbers purportedly linked to international terrorism investigations. The problem for the NSA was that the haystack was only about 30 percent...

There's a lot about Ted Cruz that should worry constitutionalists considering voting for the senator in the presidential election of 2016.Recently, Infogram published brief but illuminating biographies of several of Cruz's key foreign policy advisors. The information disclosed in these revelations could trouble many constitutionalists otherwise keen on the senator and who rely on him to restore the rule of law to the White House.The first person highlighted in the article is the chairman of Cruz's foreign policy team, Chad Sweet.Sweet's professional and political background betrays Cruz's claims of being someone who promises "not to continue going in the same...

During a particularly heated moment during the fifth Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas, Ted Cruz outlined how the USA Freedom Act allowed anti-terrorism officials to actually look at more phone data, only they needed a warrant.  During the exchange, he mentioned some specific numbers and stats concering the NSA surveillance program.  Immediately, a senior staffer for the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence used her Twitter account to imply Cruz compromised national security.  Here's the tweet: Cruz shouldn't have said that.— Becca Glover Watkins (@beccaglover) December 16, 2015 The next day, after initially saying he would investigate whether...

"The USA Freedom Act has not made us less safe at all." Republican Sen. Mike Lee on Wednesday slammed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for attacking Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over the USA Freedom Act at Tuesday night's GOP debate. Lee, who along with Cruz sponsored the bill that halted the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone metadata, said Rubio was wrong to say the bill made America less safe. "Look, Marco Rubio has been attacking Ted Cruz on the USA Freedom Act, for his vote in favor of the USA Freedom Act, and he's been doing so by suggesting...

The leaders of the Senate Intelligence committee said late Wednesday it is not investigating whether Texas Sen. Ted Cruz disclosed classified information during Tuesday night's GOP presidential debate.The panel released a statement a few hours after the chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), had said they were checking Cruz's comments.Burr released a joint statement with Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the committee, stating without explanation: "The committee is not investigating anything said during last night's Republican presidential debate."...Burr said that any time specific numbers are discussed, a question emerges as to whether it's classified or open source."The question had...

Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz clashed over their opposing votes on a key surveillance bill during Tuesday night's GOP debate, with each senator trying to establish himself as the strongest on national security.Rubio accused Cruz of hampering intelligence agencies by supporting the USA Freedom Act, which ended the National Security Agency's vast collection of millions of U.S. phone records. That information could have been critical in investigating the shooting in San Bernardino, California, Rubio argued. "We are now at a time where we need more tools, not less tools," the Florida Republican said. "And that tool we lost, the...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday offered an impassioned defense of his vote to rein in the government's bulk phone surveillance, blasting those in his party who he said wanted to "exploit the current crisis by calling on Americans to surrender our constitutional liberties as the only way to ensure our safety."The Republican presidential candidate, who has been gaining in recent early-state primary polling, used a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation to respond to criticism from two fellow candidates, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, for his vote to end the National Security Agency's mass...

ICYMI: CRUZ: We Need a Commander in Chief Who Stands Up and Doesn't Refuse to Say Radical Islamic Terrorism Spoke with The Mike Gallagher Show this morningHOUSTON, Texas - Presidential candidate Ted Cruz joined Mike Gallagher on the radio this morning regarding the fight against ISIS, that President Obama is completely out of touch with the American people, and how the USA Freedom Act strengthens our ability to target radical Islamic terrorists.Below are excerpts, listen to entire interview here:Ted Cruz on the Mike Gallagher Show (Audio)Regarding the President’s AddressMike Gallagher: I mean it's inconceivable to me that the President of...

Marco Rubio: "At least two of my colleagues in the Senate aspiring to the presidency, Senator Cruz in particular, have voted to weaken the U.S. intelligence programs just in the last month and a half," Rubio said, referring to the passage of the USA Freedom Act that ended government's ability to hold on to bulk amounts of metadata.

He likened Bush's position on the NSA to his "confused" position on the Iraq War. Rand Paul is slamming Jeb Bush over the former Florida governor’s defense of National Security Agency data collection, the latest round in the Kentucky senator’s battles with his own party on the issue. “Just like he was confused for weeks about his position on the Iraq war, Gov. Bush appears completely unaware of the facts about the government’s illegal and unnecessary spying [on] the American people and made it clear his position is based on politics, not policy and the Constitution,” Paul spokesman Sergio Gor...

Tuesday in in Orlando at the Florida Economic Growth Summit, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) said he was “upset” and “deeply troubled” about the debate over the NSA encroaching upon American’s civil liberties by the warrantless collection of bulk data that has now been reformed by the Senate passing the Freedom Act. Bush said, “The simple fact is, we are safer today because of the Patriot Act, and this notion that somehow you create a false narrative, as many on the left, and a few on our team, but mostly on the left, that our civil liberties are being violated....

The relationship between Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell has always been more a marriage of political convenience than heartfelt bromance, and it is being tested now like never before.. The two Republican senators represent divergent flanks of the Republican Party, often pulling in different directions, most recently over what to do with the nation’s domestic telephone surveillance program. Paul is the libertarian-leaning firebrand who temporarily shut down the government's bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is the establishment elder who believes surveillance is not infringing on privacy and should be preserved to catch terrorists. Paul...

Of the Presidential candidates: Sanders - NO Rubio - NO Cruz - YES Graham - Did not vote

WASHINGTON — In a remarkable reversal of national security policy formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Senate voted on Tuesday to curtail the federal government’s sweeping surveillance of American phone records, sending the legislation to President Obama’s desk for his signature. The passage of the measure, achieved after a vigorous debate on the Senate floor, will lead to the reinstatement of government surveillance efforts that were blacked out on Monday after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, blocked their extension. The vote was a rebuke to Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, as...