The latest updates: there aren't enough votes for McConnell's proposed reauthorization, but there also aren't quite enough to pass the USA Freedom. So once cloture fails on USA Freedom, McConnell will propose for a very-short-term (one or two week) extension, in hopes that everybody wants to go home for the weekend and so will pass it quickly. If that passes, then the House (which has already adjourned) could pass it by unanimous consent in a pro forma session to avoid a sunset, then everybody could start wrangling again when they come back in early June. Of course the House has vowed not to do that, but I guess McConnell is hoping they'll be so concerned about a sunset that they'll back down.
It's like watching sausage getting made ... very very slowly.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2015/may/22/clock-wi...
The latest updates: there aren't enough votes for McConnell's proposed reauthorization, but there also aren't quite enough to pass the USA Freedom. So once cloture fails on USA Freedom, McConnell will propose for a very-short-term (one or two week) extension, in hopes that everybody wants to go home for the weekend and so will pass it quickly. If that passes, then the House (which has already adjourned) could pass it by unanimous consent in a pro forma session to avoid a sunset, then everybody could start wrangling again when they come back in early June. Of course the House has vowed not to do that, but I guess McConnell is hoping they'll be so concerned about a sunset that they'll back down.
It's like watching sausage getting made ... very very slowly.