Rep. Bob Goodlatte, one of the authors of the House USA Freedom Act, on Monday called the bill an "extremely bipartisan" measure that will end the bulk collection of phone metadata "as the American people want," but replace it with another program that allows intelligence agencies to get the information they need in real time.
The measure has been supported by a 338-88 vote in the House, the Virginia Republican told
CNN's "New Day" program on Monday, and care has been taken to keep the measure from compromising privacy while it protects public safety. An alternative, he said, would be to throw out data collection and not do anything else about it.
"The Obama administration has carefully been involved in this as well," said Goodlatte. "This is not just a [measure to] throw out the data collection and don't do anything about it; this is to stop the government from metadata collection, not just telephone metadata, any kind of metadata."
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A court order would be required and stay in place for 180 days, he said, so when new phone numbers show up on the number under surveillance, information will continue in real time.
"It will be effective and it will protect American civil liberties," said Goodlatte. "You can have a high level of both."
The bill could face some difficulties in the Senate, including a division between Kentucky Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul over whether the phone records should be collected at all.
Senate Majority Leader McConnell told ABC News' "This Week" that he agrees with Paul on most things, reports
Roll Call, but not on the issue of the NSA's collection of phone records, which Paul opposes.
Paul, a Libertarian-leaning presidential candidate, opposes the NSA's collection procedures and has threatened to filibuster McConnell's plan for a two-month extension on the legislation.
"Well, ya know, everybody threatens to filibuster," McConnell told ABC. "This is the security of the country we’re talking about here. This is no small matter. We see it on display on almost a weekly basis."
McConnell said he wants the extension to make sure the House bill does not completely destroy the NSA's program altogether.
"The House-passed bill does not require the telephone companies to keep the records. I fear the House-passed bill will basically end the program," McConnell said. "I want to reassure everybody that there are plenty of safeguards in this program. Nobody at the NSA is routinely listening in to your telephone conversations."
Paul, who also is against the House bill, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that, as an appeals court has found the collection is being done improperly, President Barack Obama should "stop it immediately and we shouldn’t be doing this.
"I don’t want to replace it with another system," Paul said. "I really think that we could get along with the Constitution just fine. We did for over 200 years. You can catch terrorists."
Paul said judges will most likely grant warrants, as it's not hard "to get a warrant for most activities you want to be investigated."
Goodlatte said Monday that while opponents say it's the wrong time to alter the Patriot Act, considering the growing threat of the Islamic State and other militant entities, the courts have found the current program violates the law.
"We believe we're going to see other circuit courts that have also had cases brought similarly," said Goodlatte. "This has got to be changed. Secondly, we're not playing politics at all. We're protecting Americans' rights under their Constitution and that is very important."
But at the same time, it's important to leave national security protections in place.
Goodlatte said there are measures in the bill to protect civil liberties, and let the government collect vital phone data "the way we have always done it."
But the Senate stalemate could leave the NSA without the powers they've used to track terrorists for years, as the key provisions of the Patriot Act expire at the end of the month, reports
The Hill.
Civil libertarians who have hoped for the Patriot Act provisions to expire say that it's not clear if both the House and Senate will approve the measures in time, while defenders say the provisions allowing for the collection of metadata or "any tangible things" relevant to terrorist investigations are vital.
However, a White House-commissioned review after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's damaging revelations concluded that the information obtained through the program "was not essential to preventing attacks" and it had "not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States."