captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, may 31: with a deadline looming, the senate resumes the debate over the patriot act. in our signature segment, the growing business of gender roles and non-conforming fashion. >> i think people see me in a way that may actually be aligned with how i see myself. >> sreenivasan: and, the death of beau biden. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided

by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. the senate is in a rare sunday session tonight, wrangling over three key surveillance provisions of the patriot act set to expire at midnight. the most controversial provision allows the n.s.a. to collect and store americans' phone records. the house already passed a bipartisan measure, forcing the government to give up the mass data collection and have phone companies keep the records instead. but the senate is locked in a stand-off.

even if a group of senators comes up with a viable bill in the next few hours the senate has to agree unanimously just to vote on kentucky senator rand paul says he'll refuse to let that happen, saying saturday he'll "force the expiration of the n.s.a. illegal spy program." rand paul's tactics sparked criticism from utah senator mike lee this morning. lee wants the senate to pass the house version of the bill tonight. >> i do believe we have the votes. so at this point i think the question is not really about whether we'll get this passed but when. it'll happen either tonight or it will happen on wednesday or sometime in between then. >> sreenivasan: joining me now with the very latest on the senate debate is the newshour's political director lisa desjardins. >> sreenivasan: how did we get here? it has been a week. how did we goat this point? >> right. this is a gamble by senate majorly leader mitch mcconnell, when the senate comes up to a deadline, especially one like last week when they were on their way to i have a indication, the senate usually does meet that deadline, it is

just by a few minutes, this time, however, they didn't, and i think the difference, hari this time, is that when these provisions were last authorized by congress, it was 2011. since that time, we have seen everett snowden made his revelations about what exactly these programs have been doing and just in the past few months they got a federal court to rule against them. so this idea of kind of taking something like a report to your boss on deadline and getting them to sign off which sometimes congress has done didn't work this time because really the game has changed, our knowledge has changed and opinions have changed about these programs since they were last authorized. >> sreenivasan: well, what the options on the table heading into tonight? >> well, there were two options that the senate actually voted on, one was just a two month extension, just keep the programs running exactly as is and trying 0 to discuss what to do next. that is the classic option for the senate but that really didn't get very many votes. what did almost get enough votes

was a revision of the reform data collection program. this idea passed the house overwhelmingly and it got 57 votes in the senate, i don't want to get too much into numbers but that is really important because it is just three votes short of what it needed. so this idea of revising the patriot act would make it so that the government had to take its hands off completely all of the phone metadata, the numbers you and i call, for example that the government now has clear access to. the government no longer would be able to see, instead the government under this usa freedom act would have to get a court order and they would have to ask our telephone company or our telecommunications company to have access to that data. the companies would be the ones that hold that data, not government. it is a significant change. it almost had enough votes a week ago and i think the thing to watch is as to whether reform minded senators are able to get three more people to jump on board with them in the next day, maybe a few days. >> sreenivasan: so if those three senators get on board, does that mean that senator rand

paul, presidential candidate rand paul will not be able to stop this single-handedly? >> he cannot ultimately stop this single-handedly but he can delay it so that we do expect these powers to expire tonight @midnight. senator paul has said in a statement that his campaign sent me that he will object to it and basically that means that it will take days of process to get to a final vote. any single senator has that ability and here rand ball is using it. so he can't stop a compromise necessarily but he can delay it so that these powers would expire for at least a few days. so then we goat the issue of what will the compromise be? what will the senate do and the truth is hari, right now we don't know. so while you and i are wondering what exactly our government will be able to do and, in surveillance either on the security issue or liberty issue, many employees of the nsa are wondering just in the next few hours what they will be able to do as well for the next few days. >> sreenivasan: so one of the

administration talking points throughout this week really throughout the past couple of years is how integral nsa intelligence has been to thwarting terrorism if there is a lapse come midnight who says how dangerous it is and how not to dangerous it is? >> the truth is that we have not gotten specifics on exactly what would happen and it is possible that honestly the national security agency and the white house don't know, they don't know exactly how terrorists would be able to take advantage of this. they do think that terrorists are aware of this debate, they are aware that some powers may expire tonight. i think the program to pay the most attention to, hari is not the con venture controversial metadata one but called roving wiretaps and that's the power that allows our government to track terrorist suspects when they change phones. you are tracking the suspect and not the phone. >> sreenivasan: sure. >> and almost everyone in the national security industry says that is a very important power but it would expire along where the other two in this because of the more controversial one i

think that's the ones they are the most nervous about. >> sreenivasan: political director lisa desjardins joining us from washington, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: leaders across the country and around the world are expressing sympathy tonight for vice president joe biden and his family following the death of his oldest son beau. beau biden was considered a rising star in the democratic party and was widely expected to run for governor of delaware in 2016. the vice president's eldest son had faced a series of health setbacks in recent years, yet was able to serve two terms as delaware's attorney general up until this past january. as a toddler, beau biden and his brother hunter were the only survivors of the car crash that killed joe biden's first wife, neilia, and their 13-month old daughter naomi, only a few days before christmas of 1972. just weeks later, joe biden was sworn into the senate at beau's bedside. as an adult, beau biden played a role in his father's political campaigns, introducing him onstage at the 2012 democratic

national convention in charlotte, north carolina. >> in moments both public and private, he is the father i've always known, the grandfather my children love and adore, and the vice president our nation needs. >> sreenivasan: biden served in the delaware army national guard and was a military lawyer in the jag corps. he deployed to iraq for a year in 2008 and reflected on his service in a speech two years later. >> it's been the greatest honor of my life to wear the uniform of the u.s. army. i'm honored to be the attorney general, but i'm most honored to be a captain in the army. >> sreenivasan: in 2010 biden suffered a mild stroke, and three years later doctors removed a small lesion from his brain after he reportedly felt weak and disoriented. biden had remained largely out of the public eye in the last two years while battling brain cancer. beau biden died saturday at the age of 46. he's survived by his wife and two children in a statement, secretary of state john kerry said that beau

biden: "...was filled with a sense of honor, duty, and humility to the core." secretary kerry made those comments from his hospital bed today after breaking his leg in a bike accident near geneva. the secretary was in switzerland for high-level talks on iran's nuclear program. kerry had just started his bike ride when he hit a curb. the 71-year old is returning to boston, but plans toeo conference into a paris meeting about fighting islamic militants. the five taliban members who were part of a prisoner swap with the united states are set to go free. the so-called taliban five were released from guantanamo bay prison and sent to qatar last year in exchange for captured u.s. army sergeant bowe bergdahl. the five have been living in qatar under a travel ban that expires at midnight, unless the u.s. negotiates an extension. more than 130 suspected nazi war criminals have been paid more than $20 million in u.s. social security benefits according to a new report obtained by the associated press. an internal investigation found that former nazis legally

received benefits until they were deported for war crimes. a law passed late last year now bans suspected nazi criminals from getting social security benefits. in texas, at least 27 people have died and 11 are missing in those devastating floods around houston, austin and san antonio. heavy rain has been steady since memorial day. forecasters say the rain will let up this week. damages are already estimated to top tens of millions of dollars. in india, rainshowers are bringing little relief from the raging heat wave that has killed 2,200 people since mid-april. temperatures in southern india have topped 116-degrees over the past few days. there is hope that the coming monsoon rains will cool things down this week. >> sreenivasan: millions of people tuned in to watch olympic gold medalist bruce jenner's interview with diane sawyer last month, in which he stated, "for all intents and purposes i am a woman."

the interview became a large part of a national conversation about the complexities of gender and sexuality. and within the lgbtq community, a crucial aspect of that conversation is about what to wear. in this updated story, the newshour's ivette feliciano reports on how shifting gender roles are changing the fashion industry. >> my gender identity is really based in both my experiences as a woman, and also it's just deeply rooted in the fact that i'm masculine. >> reporter: rachel tutera says it wasn't until she started wearing boy's clothes as a pre- teen, that she started to feel like the most authentic version of herself. yet the 30-year-old says shopping for clothes in the men's department left her feeling insecure and self- conscious. nothing ever fit her proportions. so she was resigned to thinking that's just the way it was. >> i got used to wearing clothes that hid me. i thought i would just end up being someone who would prefer to be overlooked, or not worth sort of a second glance.

typically you show a little bit of cuff. >> reporter: after years of frustration shopping off the rack, tutera decided to purchase her first tailored men's suit, and she says the way she felt when she tried it on changed her life. >> having something custom-made for my body basically reintroduced me to my body and i have felt, like, incredibly visible in a way that's not just causing people to take a second look at me, but i think people see me in a way that may actually be aligned with how i see myself. and that has been the most, like, powerful, mind-blowing thing. >> reporter: the experience made tutera want to pass that feeling on to others. so she approached the new york based made-to-order-men's suit company, "bindle and keep," convincing the owner that he was overlooking an under-served market-- not only masculine women, but also transgender men and other gender non-conforming people who want well-fitting, men's suits. she soon became the company's

lgbtq liaison, serving hundreds of people all over the country who sometimes spend up to $1,500 for their custom made suit. >> this is not just a need that is being recognized in progressive cities. >> reporter: has it been emotional for any of your clients? >> yes it has been emotional for sure. shopping or wearing clothes seems like a really mundane thing. but actually it's, like, incredibly meaningful and incredibly powerful and it can really, like, make or break an identity. >> reporter: ann pellegrini is the director of the center for gender and sexuality at new york university. >> many gender non-conforming people don't experience themselves as having been born into the wrong body. but, they might find themselves deeply uncomfortable with the kinds of straightjackets of gender. the ways in which, you know,

>> reporter: last month about 17 million people tuned in to watch legendary olympic gold medalist and cable tv star bruce jenner's interview with diane sawyer. they discussed the long- speculated-upon subject of jenner's transgender identity. while jenner identifies as a woman, he has not yet indicated that a new name or pronouns should be used, and he also says he's heterosexual, introducing many viewers to a complex gender identity-one that doesn't fit neatly into a male/female binary. yet ann pellegrini says even before this big tv moment, momentum was already building, as recently there has been an explosion of gender non- conforming people in mainstream media, challenging conventional gender roles. >> this is the first time an openly transgender person has appeared on the cover of "time magazine." why now do you think, laverne? >> because of the internet and because of social media trans people we our voices now, and we are letting our voice be heard. >> i think that we are born and we're assigned a sex at birth. that is a matter none of us have control over. but we do have control over our destinies and over our

identities, and we should be respected. >> reporter: professor ann pellegrini believes that the growing visibility of gender- non-conforming people and the legalization of same-sex marriage in 37 states has forced the fashion world to acknowledge the presence and buying power of the lgbtq community. the research company, gallup estimates about 780,000 people have joined same-sex marriages since 2004, when massachusetts became the first u.s. state to legalize them. since then, more than a dozen fashion brands that specifically cater to what they call the" unconventionally masculine" have taken off around the country. and now many mainstream fashion institutions are following suit. in 2012, ford models chose female olympic swimmer and new york artist, casey legler, as its newest menswear model. in the same year, yves saint laurent chose a female model as the face of its spring/summer menswear collection. last year, luxury retailer

barneys new york featured 17 transgender models in its spring campaign. and just this year "vogue magazine" profiled a transgender model for the first time in the magazine's history. >> none of these designers would be sort of trying to produce clothes that would appeal to masculine women if they didn't think there were people who could walk in with a wallet and pull out a credit card. >> reporter: though mainstream designers are starting to cater to the needs of the lgbtq community, some shoppers say that sort of acceptance hasn't trickled down to their stores. what was surprising to you when just trying to shop at a store and going into a fitting room? >> there's a weird tendency in people to panic when they can't tell if you're a man or a woman, or how you or how you may identify. >> reporter: rachel tutera says many gender non-conforming people experience being forcefully removed from gendered fitting rooms by salespeople

and that discrimination and judgment is often inevitable. that's why three years ago she started a fashion blog called" the handsome butch." the site hopes to empower readers with a simple message, which is that they too have "the right to be handsome." >> it was almost like a meditation i had for myself when i was first shopping. it was, "i have the right to be here." i think i just had to say over and over to myself, "you have the right to be handsome. you have the right to be handsome," until it actually felt like a right instead of, like-- like, a meditation i was trying to convince myself was true. >> reporter: tutera's work will be featured in an upcoming documentary produced by lena dunham of the hit hbo series" girls." she says the one thing she won't be tailoring in the coming months is her message. >> sreenivasan: want to know more about how laws have enforced sex-specific dress throughout history? read our interactive timeline on our website at pbs.org/newshour.

>> sreenivasan: the u.s. lags far behind other industrialized nations when it comes to the number of students pursuing degrees in stem fields, that's science, technology, engineering and mathematics. and, the numbers are even lower for women and people of color. but one tech entrepreneur thinks he can change that, by getting students interested in the thrill of competition. newshour special correspondent lynn sherr reports. >> brain, nerves, nerve-endings. >> reporter: science and sci-fi have always attracted freya wilhelm, whose favorite tv show as a child was this animated series set in the fantastic future. but freya's life went off track her freshman year of high school, when, as a struggling art student in manhattan, she descended into a cycle of marijuana, party drugs, psychedelics. >> i was feeling very experimental. >> reporter: by her junior year she had added cocaine. and was failing out of school. what did you see as your future, at that point? did you look at yourself and say, "what am i doing?"

>> i kind of just thought maybe i would grow out of it or things would work itself out. >> reporter: luckily, school officials transferred her to new york's lower east side prep, a second-chance school with experience turning around lost kids. one day, she was invited to join the robotics team, coached by dr. henry ruan. >> i really saw the difference that made. when we started she was kind of shy and silent member of the team. i didn't see her very often in the school. it's not easy to have this kind of change. the person has to put a lot of commitment, a lot of determination, this program is playing some role in that change. >> reporter: this program challenges students to design build and program robots for an international competition. it also hooks them on the wonders of-- well, look at its

name: first, for the inspiration and recognition of science and technology. >> team brazil! >> reporter: first was created 26 years ago by entrepreneur dean kamen, who invented the segway among other high-tech devices. >> i thought, if we could create a cultural shift that made tech cool to a generation of kids, we might start narrowing the gap between the number of scientists and engineers that we're producing in this country on a percentage basis to other countries around the world. >> reporter: what, specifically, is the problem? >> we have a smaller percentage of our kids becoming scientists and engineers than many countries in the developing world. and when you look at the data and see that china's producing 500,000 or 600,000 engineers this year and we'll produce one- tenth of that, it says, "how're we going to compete?" >> reporter: the gap is even greater when it comes to gender. women comprise only 13% of all

professional engineers in the u.s., and only one-quarter of the computer and mathematical sciences workforce. getting girls and boys interested early is where this competition is a game-changer. when i first met kamen back in 1993, 20-some teams competed in a high school gymnasium in new hampshire. today youngsters from 41,000 schools in 80 countries do battle in venues like new york's javits center, where we watched new york's regional competition back in march. and participants, particularly girls, report significantly more interest in science, tech and math fields. >> mr. kamen, can i get a picture? >> reporter: kamen is their rock star. >> can you sign my notebook? >> reporter: freya also gets her moment, but as team captain quickly turns to the competition. the goal is to load up the robot with the most boxes, and a garbage can. the first match goes badly but

as the team regroups, the real genius behind the program becomes clear. >> whether or not they built a good robot, i don't care. what they built was a bit of self-confidence about what's possible, a new perspective. >> reporter: for freya, it all comes together in the final round. >> freya! we won by four points! >> yes! we beat one of the really good teams! >> reporter: next year, freya wilhelm wants to go to college and study engineering, a childhood fantasy that finally seems possible. fair to say that first turned your life around? >> yes. absolutely. i think it's given me, a big 180° in my life. >> reporter: all because she took that first step with dean kamen. >> stay with it! >> i will, i will. thank you so much. i'm so happy. >> sreenivasan: returning to our lead story, the chock continues to tick as the senate debate extending 0 plowg the

government to collect american phone records. this provision of the patriot act is going to expire @midnight. and later officials say qatar has agreed to temporarily extend the travel bans on the five taliban members swapped in a prisoner exchange for sergeant bowe bergdahl. >> they will, the bans will stay in place until a longer term agreement is agreed upon. >> i am hari sreenivasan. >> thanks for watching. >> >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support is provided by:

and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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