GOP lawmaker: Civil liberties ‘restored’ as Patriot Act expires

Rep. Thomas Massie, an ally of fellow Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, said Monday that the midnight expiration of certain Patriot Act provisions was a “wonderful thing.”

Massie, along with Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), stayed in Washington last week — while other lawmakers were back in their districts for the Memorial Day recess — to make sure there was no passage of a short-term extension of the government surveillance.

The two civil libertarians further accompanied Paul to the Senate’s Sunday session, which resulted in advancing the House-passed bill to rein in the National Security Agency’s (NSA) bulk data collection. But Paul prevented the Senate from sending the legislation to President Obama’s desk before the midnight deadline.

Ultimately, however, the Senate is expected to pass the bill by midweek and renew the expired Patriot Act provisions.

{mosads}Massie hailed the lapse as a victory, albeit a temporary one. 

“Last night at midnight, a wonderful thing happened,” Massie said in a House floor speech. “And now we have some of our civil liberties restored. If only but for a brief second in history, they are restored. It may register only as an eddy current, but clearly we changed the tide last night.”

The Kentucky Republican said he sympathized with lawmakers who were under pressure in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to pass legislation to help prevent another terrorist attack.

“I’d like to pretend that if I were here when the Patriot Act passed after the attacks on our country, that I wouldn’t have voted for it, but I can’t say that. I’m not going to pass judgment on my colleagues that were here when it did pass. I can barely imagine the incredible pressure they were under from their constituents, from everybody, to do something. Do something to protect our country,” Massie said.

“I don’t blame them. I wasn’t here. I might have done the same thing. But we have new facts today,” Massie went on.

Massie pointed to the recent federal court ruling that the NSA’s bulk data collection is illegal as evidence that U.S. surveillance programs need an overhaul. He called for a complete expiration of the Patriot Act, arguing the House bill — titled the USA Freedom Act — would still risk violating civil liberties.

“Things have changed. I urge my colleagues not to reauthorize the Patriot Act. The Freedom Act does not go far enough,” Massie concluded.