U.S. House majority leader: 'further action' possible on surveillance

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican majority leader left the door open on Friday for the House of Representatives to consider an extension of expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act if the Senate does not back a domestic surveillance bill passed by the House. In a memo to fellow Republicans, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said "further action on the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act may be necessary" if the Senate does not pass the USA Freedom Act. House leaders had previously resisted suggestions that the House might address the Patriot Act provisions. They had instead called repeatedly for the Senate to pass the Freedom Act, which ends spy agencies' bulk collection of Americans' telephone call records and replaces it with a more targeted system for retrieving the information. The House overwhelmingly passed the Freedom Act earlier this month. The bill is also strongly supported by Democratic President Barack Obama. The Senate is due to return to Washington for a rare weekend session on Sunday to deal with the expiration at midnight of three provisions of the Patriot Act, including Section 215, which has been used to justify the National Security Agency's collection of billions of records of Americans' telephone calls. Senators have been unable to agree on how to deal with the expiration. Late last week, they failed by three votes to advance the Freedom Act, and all efforts to extend the expiring Patriot Act provisions have been blocked. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; Editing by Doina Chiacu)