So it looks like Sen. Rand Paul has managed to get Majority Leader Harry Reid to agree on some votes to amendments to the PATRIOT Act, which aren't likely to get through:
The Senate was set to start voting on the legislation, including possible amendments, Thursday morning. Final passage during the day would send it to the House for quick approval and then onward to President Barack Obama in Europe for his signature.
The rapid-fire action on key elements of the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act comes after several days of impasse in the Senate and results in part from the prodding of senior intelligence officials, who warned of the consequences of disrupting surveillance operations.
It's worth noting that the concern over time here is disingenuous, at least on the part of the majority leader. Reid promised Paul a week-long debate in February, the Senate twiddled its thumbs until the last minute and is now using their inaction as an excuse not to vote on amendments that include some very mild oversight provisions the administration itself has expressed support for in the past. The concern expressed by Sen. Ron Wyden to Spencer Ackerman about overbroad use of section 215 suggests to me that the leadership might have wanted to avoid his proposal with Sen. Mark Udall to rein in section 215 use more than the amendment Sen. Patrick Leahy co-sponsored with Paul. But as Marcy Wheeler writes, what Udall and Wyden wanted was for the government to actually justify the use of certain PATRIOT Act provisions by indicating that they were really being used in the context of a terrorism investigation. Doesn't seem terribly demanding if that is in fact how these powers are being used.
UPDATE: Dave Weigel reports that there could be a deal on the Leahy-Paul amendment after all:
The deal to pass PATRIOT reauthorization is still being hammered out. The deal, according to a GOP aide, will probably include amendments from both sides. That could be Paul's two amendments plus an amendment sponsored by Pat Leahy and co-sponsored by Paul. Leahy said that he probably wouldn't vote for reauthorization if his amendment didn't make it, and he'd been saying this to negotiators who just want to package the deal and move on.
