dean heller

You could call it Sen. Tom Coburn's last stand.  

The Oklahoma Republican, who is retiring early at the end of the current Congress, is expected to force the Senate to jump through procedural hoops because of the bundling of unrelated lands bills in the National Defense Authorization Act.  

Sen. Ron Wyden is raising additional concerns about "backdoor" queries of communications by American citizens by federal intelligence and law enforcement authorities.  

"I and other reformers in Congress have argued that intelligence agencies should absolutely be permitted to search for communications pertaining to counterterrorism and other foreign threats, but if intelligence officials are deliberately searching for and reading the communications of specific Americans, the Constitution requires a warrant," Wyden said in a statement. "The bipartisan, bicameral legislation that I and other reformers have supported would permit the government to conduct these searches pursuant to a probable cause warrant or emergency authorization, and it would include an exception for searches for individuals who are believed to be in danger."  

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wants Republicans to condemn Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy for making racist remarks first quoted by the New York Times.  

"Today, Bundy revealed himself to be a hateful racist. But by denigrating people who work hard and play by the rules while he mooches off public land he also revealed himself to be a hypocrite," Reid said in a statement Thursday.  

Nevada's senators sparred Friday on live TV in Las Vegas over the standoff between the federal government and rancher Cliven Bundy.  

"What Sen. Reid may call domestic terrorists, I call patriots," GOP Sen. Dean Heller said during the rare joint appearance on KSNV-TV . "We have a very different view on this."