Mitch McConnell is warning against allowing the controversial NSA program and other key surveillance activities under the USA Patriot Act to expire at midnight May 31.
The behind-the-scenes NSA concerns — which haven't been reported before — could be relevant as Congress decides whether to renew or modify the phone records collection when the law authorizing it expires in June.
The recommendation by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is even more sweeping than a similar proposal from another panel of experts that advised Obama to restrict phone surveillance to limited court-ordered sweeps.
U.S. leaker Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA's spying programs have sparked concern among politicians in countries from Latin America to Europe.
Court records from 2009 say that after repeated assurances the NSA would obey the court's rules, it acknowledged that it had collected material improperly.
The British newspaper The Guardian said Thursday that it obtained a confidential memo that suggests U.S. intelligence was able to monitor the communications of 35 world leaders in 2006.
The ministry said Ambassador John B. Emerson is expected to meet Thursday afternoon with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who will "spell out the position of the German government."
The French newspaper Le Monde reports that documents leaked by American Edward Snowden show that the NSA swept up more than 70 million French phone records