It's better than nothing, although not much else:
Two days after letting a disputed post-9/11 surveillance program go dark, the Senate Tuesday passed legislation to revive but also re[duc]e it. GOP leaders mounted a last-ditch effort to soften some of the changes.
The 67-32 vote came after the Senate rejected changes to a House-passed bill remaking the surveillance program.
The Senate voted 83-14 during a morning session to move forward with debate on the House's USA Freedom Act, continuing an about-face after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans had declared it unacceptable just days earlier.
If any amendments to the House bill had been approved, the legislation would have to go back to the House for further debate, and the counterterror programs would remain lapsed.
The House legislation remakes the most controversial aspect of the USA Patriot Act — the once-secret bulk collection program that allows the National Security Agency to sweep up Americans' phone records and comb through them for ties to international terrorists.
"This legislation is critical to keeping Americans safe from terrorism and protecting their civil liberties," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement shortly after Senate passage. "I applaud the Senate for renewing our nation’s foreign intelligence capabilities, and I’m pleased this measure will now head to the president’s desk for his signature."
The legislation continues other post-9/11 surveillance provisions that also lapsed Sunday night, and which are considered more effective than the phone-data collection program. These include the FBI's authority to gather business records in terrorism and espionage investigations and to more easily eavesdrop on suspects who are discarding cellphones to avoid surveillance.
I wonder how Rand Paul's fundraising tweet is going to read today: "Today we failed to keep the rest of the illegal Patriot Act in the grave. Contribute to celebrate that this defeat was not as bad as it could have been."
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