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 The renewed tension between the two houses came a day after the
Senate failed to pass legislation extending the legal authority for
U.S. spy agencies' collection of American's phone records in time to
keep the program from expiring.
While a lapse of only a few days is seen as having little effect on
intelligence agencies' capabilities, a legislative struggle is now
looming over the Senate's proposed amendments to the Freedom Act
aimed at extending surveillance powers.
The amendments include a proposal to keep spy agencies' bulk
collection of Americans' telephone data in place for 12 months,
double the six months included in the version of the Freedom Act the
House passed overwhelmingly on May 13.
Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and
John Conyers, the panel's top Democrat, issued their statement while
members of the Senate debated amendments to the bill proposed by
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Richard Burr, the Republican
chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"The House is not likely to accept the changes proposed by Senator
McConnell," the House lawmakers said in a statement.
 The protracted debate over reforming the surveillance system,
disclosed in 2013 by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden,
has tested the balance that Americans give to protecting their
freedoms versus protecting their security.
"Whatever one thinks of the proposed new system, there needs to be a
basic assurance that it will function as its proponents say it
will," McConnell said on Monday, explaining why he sees the
amendments as necessary.
If the Senate amends the Freedom Act and the House does not pass it,
the senior House Republicans said the telephone data collection put
in place after the Sept. 11 attacks and which lapsed at midnight on
Sunday could end for good.
"GRANDFATHER CLAUSE"
The Freedom Act would end spy agencies' bulk collection of domestic
telephone "metadata" and replace it with a more targeted system.
The records would be held by telecommunications companies, not the
government, and the NSA would have to get court approval to gain
access to specific data.
Many civil liberties groups feel the Freedom Act does not go far
enough in protecting privacy, but Republican security hawks say it
will hamper law enforcement's ability to track terrorism suspects.
"There's no question that this will lengthen the amount of time it
takes us to connect the dots," said Burr.
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Despite the lapse in their powers, though, government agencies will
retain legal authorization to collect telephone metadata for
counterterrorism investigations opened before Sunday - a so-called
"grandfather" clause.
Among the proposed amendments to the Freedom Act is a requirement
that telecoms firms notify the government if they intend to stop
holding onto call records for less than 18 months, which experts
said is current telecom industry standard practice.
Companies such as Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc would
store the phone metadata, which includes dialed numbers and call
lengths but not the content of conversations, which is now gathered
by the National Security Agency.
They would turn it over to the government only if served with a
court order targeting specific phone numbers or other narrow search
terms. Telecommunications companies have made it clear to government
officials that until a new law is passed, they are unwilling to
discuss details about they could store and transmit the telephone
metadata.
The companies now are guided by a Federal Communications Commission
rule requiring them to retain records on "toll" or long-distance
calls for at least 18 months. The rule technically applies to
landline calls only, but companies have generally developed some
record-keeping practices for wireless calls too.
The Freedom Act does contain a provision to compensate companies for
costs they incur holding and turning over such data, which is
something the carriers made clear they wanted in return for agreeing
to store the data.
In the Senate, McConnell set a procedural vote to limit debate on
the bill for Tuesday. If the amendments are approved, the amended
bill must still pass the House before it can be sent to the White
House for Democratic President Barack Obama's signature.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Mark Hosenball and Alina Selyukh;
editing by David Storey and Stuart Grudgings)
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