Wyden and Udall are trying to swap out that language to require that the information both be relevant to an investigation and be tied to some suspected terrorist (or Julian Assange).

It appears that Rand Paul has reached some kind of deal on his insistence to get votes for his amendments to the Patriot Act. There will now be votes on the amendments, with a likely 60-vote threshold. But the expectation is that the amendments will fail, and final passage will be secured Thursday. That will be followed by a quick vote in the House, and then a flight of the bill to Europe so President Obama can sign it before a midnight deadline when the three provisions of the measure would expire. And you said Congress can never be efficient. They can when motivated!

one of the amendments to the PATRIOT Act Harry Reid made sure wouldn’t get a vote pertained to making it clear how the government interprets the PATRIOT Act. Mark Udall and Ron Wyden wanted to force the government to at least explain how they were interpreting the law so constituents would know how lame their Senators were for voting in favor of it.

The Senate will vote later today on a motion to proceed to S.1038 which would extend three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act for four years, with almost no debate.

UPDATE: The Senate passed cloture 74-8, so they’ll proceed to the bill. Final passage is expected Wednesday.

A week from today, the Senate will reconvene, and the first item of business will be how to deal with the rules for the 112th Congress. Three Senators – Tom Udall, Jeff Merkley and Tom Harkin – will spearhead an effort to change the Senate rules that would attempt to achieve two goals – 1) make it faster to complete legislation and confirmations on which there is broad agreement, and 2) make it harder for obstructionists to carry out filibusters, or at least to make it opaque who is doing the filibustering and why.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Mark Udall (D-CO) have assembled a coalition of 19 Senators to urge Attorney General Eric Holder not to appeal the worldwide injunction on enforcing the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. Impressively, the group includes moderate Tim Johnson and conservative Mary Landrieu.

We still have no indication whether the Justice Department will appeal the US District Court ruling finding the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy unconstitutional. In the meantime, Congress will try to put the finishing touches on a legislative repeal of the policy. But two Senators, mindful of using every avenue possible to end the discharges, are advocating that the Justice Department drop the lawsuit and let the ruling stand.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have written Attorney General Eric Holder to ask that his agency not appeal the decision from Judge Virginia Phillips. Several experts believe that the DoJ has no obligation to defend the policy, and all of the principals in the executive branch: the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the President – oppose it.

Mark Udall scheduled a hearing on the bark beetle, a pernicious critter that is harming plant life in the Interior West. John McCain was his partner on legislation that would attempt to deal with the problem. But John McCain has vowed not to work for the rest of the year – and presumably put his fingers in his ears and hold his breath until he turns blue – because of the passage of health care reform. . . .

Colorado senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet are joining with their Governor, Bill Ritter, in asking for an up-or-down vote on the public option. The public option has majority support in the Senate, but likely lacks to 60 votes needed to add it as a stand-alone amendment to a bill without it. By the same token, if Reid put the public option in the merged bill, it would also take 60 votes to remove it.

  The campaign arm of the DNC, Organizing For America, has delivered over 150,000 phone calls, at last count, in favor of health care reform. The President himself will deliver remarks at a “Time To Deliver” call party tonight.   Less clear is what these callers are actually asking for in the health care reform [...]