WASHINGTON — The White House and top Senate Republicans traded warnings Friday as a standoff over a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program threatened to continue into the weekend.
If senators do not act before leaving this weekend for a week-long recess, the legal authority underpinning the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone records will expire at midnight May 31.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has opposed legislation passed by the House, calling it untested and potentially harmful to national security.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest renewed calls to pass the House bill, known as the USA Freedom Act. “We’ve got people in the U.S. Senate right now who are playing chicken with us,” he said, adding that “there is no plan B” if the House bill is not passed.
