As Sunday’s midnight deadline for renewal of key provisions of the controversial Patriot Act approached, former Florida governor Jeb Bush said Senator Rand Paul was “wrong” in his efforts to end post-9/11 surveillance laws used against suspected spies and terrorists.
Paul said on Saturday that he would force the expiration of what he called an “illegal spy program”.
Speaking at a Tennessee Republican Party fundraiser on Saturday, Bush – who, unlike Paul, has yet to declare his campaign for the White House – called for the reauthorisation of the Patriot Act that was enacted under the presidency of his brother, George W Bush.
“What I admire most about my brother was he kept us safe,” said Bush, the son of President George HW Bush. “And I believe people will respect him for a long time because of that.”
Without action by midnight on Sunday, a number of tools that permit law enforcement to pursue and investigate suspected terrorists will expire. On Saturday, President Barack Obama called for the Senate to pass the USA Freedom Act, a bill that reforms surveillance powers granted to the National Security Agency (NSA).
“This is a matter of national security,” Obama said, in his weekly address. “We shouldn’t surrender the tools that help keep us safe. It would be irresponsible. It would be reckless.”
The USA Freedom Act passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support but has failed in the Senate so far. The provisions that expire at midnight are contained in Section 215 of the Patriot Act, a sweeping security measure which was passed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania on 11 September 2011.
In May, the US court of appeals ruled the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records under Section 215 to be illegal.
The Senate will meet on Sunday to discuss the issue and vote. Paul, from Kentucky, has said he will use his right to delay a final vote and let the powers lapse once midnight arrives.
“We do not need to give up who we are to defeat” terrorists, Paul said. “There has to be another way,” he said on Saturday in a statement and on Twitter, pledging to force the expiration of an “illegal spy program”.
Bush told reporters before the Tennessee event that he did not consider the collection of domestic phone metadata, as revealed in the Guardian in 2013 by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, a violation of civil rights.
“I respect Senator Paul on this, but I think he’s wrong as it relates to the conversation that your two great senators are focused on” starting Sunday, he said. “I know what will happen if there is an attack on our country. A lot of people [will] say: ‘Where were you?’”
Tennessee’s Republican senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, said they supported reauthorizing the surveillance programme.
“As long as it fits within the constitution, I want to make sure we know everything we can know about people who are trying to damage us and hurt our country,” Alexander said.
Bush agreed. “The Patriot Act has kept us safe, plain and simple”, he said, adding: “The metadata programme has kept us safe, plain and simple. There’s been no violation of civil liberties.”
