The new GOP Congress has finally gotten "government" working again, after six years of doing absolutely nothing, under the supervision of Harry Reid and a complicit Progressive majority.

In a recent decision,  a Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that  NSA's (National Security Agency) program of collecting the telephone records of Americans is not authorized by Section 215 of the Patriot Act and is, therefore, illegal. 

In response to this problematic circumstance,  the House, by a bipartisan vote of 338-88, amended Section 215 to meet the 2nd Circuit’s objections. Seems simple enough,  but,  for some reason,   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and several other Republican senators are propose to ignore the 2nd Circuit’s decision and  reauthorize Section 215 with few legislative changes.  The current law is due to expire on June 1 of this year. McConnell's plan will not be accepted by the House. 

This editor does not understand McConnell's approach to this matter.  The simplest solution would be to pass the House bill.  Obama has indicated that he would sign the bill into law,  problem solved. 

While the House bill is not perfect,  it would prevent the government’s bulk collection of call records. The government would no longer retain the call records of tens of millions of Americans in its computer files. Instead, call records would remain in the possession of the telephone companies and the government would need an order issued by the FISC to obtain the specific classes of call records it requires as part of a specific anti-terrorist investigation.  In short,  the House bill renders the NSA program compliant with the Federal Courts. 

Significantly,   Obama and the intelligence community support the House bill. 

Senator Rand Paul,  who agrees with the overhaul of Section 215,  is opposed to McConnell's decision to go with the "status quo,"  and promises to organize a filibuster.  How this works out,  in the end,  is what makes "politics" so very interesting.  If the problem is not solved by the end of May,  the phone call collection information program will come to an immediate halt,  beginning with the first of June.  

What happens next,  is all up to the Senate Majority Leader.  

Point of this post?  Just to let you know that other important matters are being considered in the newly installed Congress than what appears in our daily menu of news stories.   During the first 7 weeks of the new GOP controlled congress,  more bills were presented for Senate consideration than during the entire first 6 years of Obama's dictatorial rule as "president."   

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Text is the work of Joe Onek, here,  and J Smithson,  editor of Midknight Review.