US senate blocks measures to extend NSA programme

Opponents of the National Security Agency's bulk collection of telephone data, have successfully blocked the extension of the law that authorised the programme.

The developments, which came in a rare overnight session, have raised questions over ability of Congress to keep alive a programne that many feel was vital to national security but had also alarmed privacy advocates for its sweeping nature.

The Senate first blocked two separate measures, one a House-passed bill that would shift responsibility for holding data from the government to telecommunications companies, even as it imposed stricter limitations on how authorities could access the information.

It  failed in a 57-42 vote. The second, a two-month extension beyond the current law's 1 June expiration date, which was thumbed down 54-45.

The charge against the programme was led by senator Rand Paul, who was also seeking his party's nomination for president. Paul  repeatedly objected to requests from senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to extend it by just a few days.

"We have entered into a momentous debate," said Paul. "This is a debate about whether a warrant with a single name of a single company can be used to collect all of the phone records of all of the people in our country with a single warrant. Our forefathers would be aghast."

If senators do not act before leaving Washington for a holiday break this week, the legal authority underpinning the NSA's bulk collection of private telephone records would expire on 31 May.

Paul tweeted his approval of the delay, "Will be seeing everyone overnight it seems. My filibuster continues to end NSA illegal spying".

Meanwhile, senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said today, the Senate would return to Washington on 31 May to consider ways for preventing the expiration of domestic surveillance programme on 1 June.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives, now on an extended recess of its own, passed the White House-backed bill replacing the existing programme with one that would keep the phone records in private hands except under limited circumstances.