The post-9/11 legislation, signed into law by then-President George W. Bush in a bid to prevent more terror attacks, allows law enforcement agencies to collect phone records of any US citizen, sift through private data online and track suspected lone-wolf terrorists using questionable and often illegal means.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who declared their 2016 presidential ambitions, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have all spoken in favor of extending the Patriot Act – specifically its Section 125, which grants US intelligence agencies broad eavesdropping powers – past the June 1 expiration date.
GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator, split from his fellow Republicans and urged the expiration of the bill, while Texan Sen. Ted Cruz, seen as the Republican frontrunner, is on the fence about the issue, according to the Washington Post.
Graham chimed in last week, saying that stripping intelligence agencies of their ability to "monitor foreign fighters who have Western passports and access to our country" was the last thing he wanted to do in the light of what he views as an increasing terrorist threat.
The representative of the Bush clan will likely defend the extension to the Patriot Act, since it was his brother George who signed the bill, the Washington Post pointed out.
Jeb Bush made his support public in a radio talk show last Tuesday, describing President Barack Obama's "continuance" of the NSA's metadata collection program as "the best part of the Obama administration." The agency's online dragnet surveillance scheme was disclosed by a former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.
Among those caught in the middle of the Patriot Act debate as the expiry date looms, is Ted Cruz. The Washington Post reported that Cruz's spokesman refused to comment on the Texan senator's stance on the issue, but added he was on the Democrats' side when they pushed reform of the NSA agency.
Meanwhile, Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is the Democrats' only announced candidate, is likely to endorse the renewed legislation, after supporting the bill in the Senate in 2001. She endorsed its four-year extension in 2006, after voting "no" on the Patriot Act's wiretap provision in 2005.
The extension was signed by President Obama in May 2011. It put off the expiration date for the Act's key provisions authorizing mass surveillance practices until June 2015. Last week, US Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell introduced a bill to extend Section 125 of the Patriot Act through 2020. Both houses of the US Congress need to vote affirmatively for it to be reauthorized.
