patriot act expire at midnight. cnn national correspondent, sun land saw sraury joins us now. it doesn t look likely they will void a lapse, and they are at this hour not a clear way for this. when the senate comes back into session at 4:00 p.m., senator rand paul vowed to do all he can to stop the surveillance programs unless significant changes, he says, are made to weaken the government surveillance powers. he tweeted this out yet. quote, there has to be another way, we must find it together so tomorrow i will force the expiration of the nsa illegal spy program. senate majority leaders office says we will pass legislation today and it s not clear what day they will work to pass the legislation it will be in likely
lots of prayers and thoughts going on to that family today from a lot of people. meanwhile, senators are returning to capitol hill this afternoon. they need to take up the fight over extending the patriot act. key provisions of this act expires at midnight. they don t have a lot of time. debate is set to begin at 4:00 p.m. eastern, one minute after the white house begins shutting down the nsa s controversial bulk collection of phone records. now republican senator and presidential hopeful rand paul is vowing to end what he calls the nsa illegal spy program. just hours ago, he tweeted that americans, quote, have a right to privacy and it must be protected. cnn national correspondents sunlen serfaty is joining us now. how likely an agreement could be reached before the midnight deadline? reporter: i think it s pretty likely. just as the senate is supposed to meet this afternoon, the national security agency will have to shut down parts of the
example, to be talking about essentially unilaterally disarming an important national security tool at a time when i ve never seen the threat level higher. nbc s kristin wilkinson at the white house. walk us through what s happening in congress, and are you hearing anything from senator paul s camp about his trying to delay the process again? reporter: senator paul says that is exactly what he intends to do. in a statement he says, i will forethe expiration of the nsa illegal spy program. opponent like paul argue that it is a violation of civil liberty. proponents argue that these programs are necessary to track and protect against terrorists. look here s what is at issue, alex. it is second 215 of the usa patriot act. it essentially gives the government the ability to sweep up the phone records of millions of americans. this was the provision that was exposed by nsa leaker edward
he has said he has vowed to stop these surveillance programs unless there is significant changes to weaken them. tweeting this out yesterday, there has to be another way. we must find it together. so tomorrow i will force the expiration of the nsa illegal spy program. another republican senator on state of the union had a prediction where this was all going. i do believe we have the votes. so at this point, i think the question is not really about whether we ll get this passed but when. it will happen either tonight or it will happen on wednesday or some time in between them. really within that 72-hour window we are going to pass. the house passed usa freedom act. reporter: while he believes that the senate will pass that house bill the pass forward in the senate at this hour is not clear what they will do when they convene at 4:00 p.m. today. most likely looks like there will be some sort of lapse,
after the white house begins shutting down the nsa s controversial bulk collection of phone records. now, republican senator and presidential hopeful rand paul is vowing to end what he calls the nsa illegal spy program. just hours ago, he tweeted that americans, quote, have a right to privacy and it must be protected. the travel ban on detainees is set to conspire today. in other words, five former high ranking taliban officials could be free to leave qatar and even join the violent work. cnn s anna kornin has more for us. reporter: grave concern that the five released from guantanamo bay from beau bergdahl a year ago may soon return to the terror field. they have been living in qatar the past five months and able to