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Published Letters: 307
From the Associated Press at 5:46 p.m. this evening:
Senate Republicans blocked Majority Leader Harry Reid's attempt Tuesday to extend the life of a surveillance law due to expire Feb. 1, raising the stakes for a vote expected later this week on a new version of the law.Reid, D-Nev., failed to get the unanimous consent he sought to extend the Protect America Act... [snip]
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., objected to the extension, saying there was enough time before the law expires to pass a longer-term renewal of the government's terrorist surveillance authority.
Reid plans to bring to the Senate floor on Thursday competing versions of an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. If a bill is not approved then, Reid said he would require the Senate to work through the weekend to get a bill passed.
http://www.startribune.com/nation/13998146.html
Harry Reid is forever threatening to work through the weekend to get Senators to back off their objections [a bunch of Senators are hoping to jet off to Davos, Switzerland to attend a conference], but very rarely carries through. Reid's obviously not going to wait around, though, for opposition to build to his stampede, or for support for Dodd's filibuster to increase, nor, critically, is he prepared to force McConnell's hand by threatening to let the PAA expire on schedule.
Tables turned: McConnell is suddenly the majority leader, and benefiting from the built-in expiration date of the PAA that should be the Democrats' ace in the hole in pursuit of a sane revision of FISA.
