Senate Hawks Stage Showdown on Surveillance

The Senate “cleared the final procedural hurdle on legislation to curtail the federal government’s sweeping surveillance program, currently suspended, but an afternoon showdown loomed over amendments that defense hawks are seeking to roll back proposed controls on government spying,” the New York Times reports.

“Most contentious is a push by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to strike a provision in the House-passed USA Freedom Act that would declassify some significant opinions by the secret surveillance court.”