National Journal reports that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “will allow a vote on a House-passed measure that would effectively end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ call records.”  

“McConnell has no desire to see the USA Freedom Act—a measure he repeatedly has denounced as something that could help terrorists kill Americans—pass. Instead, he hopes to watch it fail to accrue the 60 votes necessary to advance. That could jolt more senators toward his preference of extending unhindered the Patriot Act’s three surveillance provisions due to expire June 1.”  

“Such a sequence—a vote on the Freedom Act followed by a vote for a clean renewal—could give McConnell what he wants. But in addition to banking on the Freedom Act’s failure, McConnell is gambling that the Senate can move quickly enough to catch House lawmakers before they skip town Thursday.”