McConnell Urges Delay on Piracy Bills Mr. McConnell released a statement calling on the majority leader, Harry Reid, to set aside a procedural vote on the Senate measure scheduled for Tuesday. "While we must combat the online theft of intellectual property, current proposals in Congress raise serious legal, policy and operational concerns," Mr. McConnell wrote. Two bills - the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA, in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in the House - garnered widespread, bipartisan support when they were first introduced. The Senate measure, drafted by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, had 40 co-sponsors of every ideological stripe. Mr. McConnell was not one of them. Then, with the online encouragement of Internet sites like Google, Facebook, Wikipedia and Twitter, Internet users rose up, charging that the bills would have unintended consequences, stifle innovation on the Web and open the Internet to unreasonable police actions. A day of action on Wednesday darkened some Web sites and mobilized others against the bills. One by one, advocates backed off. Mr. Reid, Democrat of Nevada, scheduled the vote next week to see if the measure still had the 60 votes needed to move it to the Senate floor for final debate. But he has also told its drafters to see if they can negotiate a new version that passes muster with the Internet opponents. Few think that is possible. A Reid staff aide said the discussions remained "fluid," hinting at developments to come. Update: Even as Mr. McConnell pushed for the delay, there were clear indications on Thursday night that Tuesday's vote would be called off given the deep erosion in support for the measure from both Republicans and Democrats.