Invoking Orlando, Senate Republicans set up vote to expand FBI spying

Friends of Juan Carlos Nieves Rodriguez, one of the victims of the shooting at the Pulse night club in Orlando, are seen through a window of a hearse transporting Nieves' body toward the cemetery, outside the funeral parlor at his hometown of Caguas, Puerto Rico, June 20, 2016.[Photo/VCG]

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, criticized a similar effort last month as one that "takes a hatchet to important protections for Americans' liberty."

The amendment would broaden the FBI's authority to use so-called National Security Letters to include electronic communications transaction records such as time stamps of emails and the emails' senders and recipients.

The amendment filed Monday would also make permanent a provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows the intelligence community to conduct surveillance on "lone wolf" suspects who do not have confirmed ties to a foreign terrorist group. That provision, which the Justice Department said last year had never been used, is currently set to expire in December 2019.

A vote is expected no later than Wednesday, McConnell's office said.