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Senate Republicans rose to the defense of the National Security Agency on Tuesday by filibustering a bill that would have halted the agencys phone-snooping program, saying it is now more critical than ever amid advancing terrorism in the Middle East and fears of homegrown terrorism in the U.S.

The vote, in which 41 Republicans and one Democrat banded together for the filibuster, leaves the most controversial part of the Patriot Act in place.

It also ends efforts to rein in the NSA program for the foreseeable future because Republicans will take control of the chamber early next year and are unlikely to revisit the issue.

This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs, said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who pointed to the advance of Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria. The threat from ISIL is real. Its different from what weve faced before. And if were going to overcome it if our aim is to degrade and destroy ISIL, as the president has said then thats going to require smart policies and firm determination.

Pressure will now build on President Obama to make changes on his own. He has put some limits on the NSA, but asked Congress for guidance and said he strongly supported the legislation the Republicans defeated.

Still, the NSAs snooping days may be numbered. The controversial sections of the Patriot Act are up for renewal next year, and unless Congress can reach an agreement, those powers will expire.

Tuesdays vote was a blow for privacy advocates, who won overwhelming support in the House this year for a bill that dramatically curtailed NSA snooping and other bulk-records collection by the government.

The advocates tried to build a similar conservative-liberal coalition in the Senate, but most Republicans balked.

Tonight, Senate Republicans have failed to answer the call of the American people who elected them, and all of us, to stand up and to work across the aisle, said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who pressed for the vote, fearing GOP infighting would doom chances for a bill next year.

Mr. Leahy accused Republicans of scare tactics to try to preserve the Patriot Act authority.

Excerpt from:
NSA phone snooping upheld by Senate Republicans' filibuster

Legislation to keep most Americans' phone records out of government hands was defeated in the Senate, dooming for now prospects of national security reforms that supporters said would protect the privacy of law-abiding citizens.

A motion failed Tuesday to get the necessary 60 votes needed to cut off debate on the bill sponsored by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), with most Republicans voting against. The final vote was 58 to 42.

One of its most outspoken foes was incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said stopping the National Security Agency from collecting telephone dialing records "would end one of our nation's critical capabilities to gather significant intelligence on terrorist threats."

Citing the recent beheadings of U.S. citizens in Syria, McConnell said: "This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced just before the vote that she strongly supported the bill, dubbed the USA Freedom Act. Feinstein's support had been in doubt.

"I supported the USA Freedom Act because it may be the best opportunity to reform the metadata collection program while maintaining the government's ability to use this tool to prevent terrorist attacks at home and abroad," she said.

Born of Edward Snowden's revelations that the NSA was secretly archiving data from nearly every telephone call made in the United States, the Leahy bill would have required the NSA to request such records from telephone companies rather than collect and store the information itself.

Except in emergencies, U.S. intelligence agencies and the FBI would have had to seek approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to access and use the data, and only in cases involving suspected terrorism or espionage. A similar procedure is used now to access the NSA database, but critics said the current system is open to abuse.

"The bill contains key reforms to safeguard Americans' privacy by prohibiting the indiscriminate collection of their data," Leahy said. "It also provides for greater accountability and transparency of the government's surveillance programs."

At issue are telephone company records of customers and the phone numbers they have dialed, including date, time and duration of calls, but not the conversations themselves.

Excerpt from:
NSA surveillance bill defeated in Senate

FILE: An aerial view of the NSA's Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah.(AP)

The Senate on Tuesday blocked a bill to end bulk collection of American phone records by the National Security Agency, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama's primary proposal to rein in domestic surveillance.

The 58-42 vote was two short of the 60 needed to proceed with debate. Voting was largely along party lines, with most Democrats supporting the bill and most Republicans voting against it. The Republican-controlled House had previously passed its own NSA bill.

The legislation would have ended the NSA's collection of domestic calling records, instead requiring the agency to obtain a court order each time it wanted to analyze the records in terrorism cases, and query records held by the telephone companies. In many cases the companies store the records for 18 months.

The revelation that the spying agency had been collecting and storing domestic phone records since shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was among the most significant by Edward Snowden, a former agency network administrator who turned over secret NSA documents to journalists. The agency collects only so-called metadata numbers called, not names and not the content of conversations. But the specter of the intelligence agency holding domestic calling records was deeply disquieting to many Americans.

The bill had drawn support from technology companies and civil liberties activists. Its failure means there has been little in the way of policy changes as a result of Snowden's disclosures.

Pressured to act, Obama in January proposed curbing the NSA's authority and the House in May passed a bill to do so. While the measure was pending, the NSA continued to collect American landline calling records, though the program does not cover most mobile phone records.

The law authorizing the bulk collection, a provision of the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, will expire at the end of 2015. That means Congress would have to pass legislation re-authorizing the program for it to continue.

For that reason, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, abandoned her previous opposition to the bill. "If we do not pass the bill, we will lose this program," Feinstein said on the Senate floor.

"This bill increases trust and confidence and credibility of our intelligence system," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

See more here:
Key GOP senators oppose NSA phone records measure

The USA Freedom Act, blocked by the Senate, would have curbed powers granted under the Patriot Act, including bulk collection of Americans' phone records.

Senate vote deals setback to efforts to reform NSA programs. Shara Tibken/CNET

Lawmakers' efforts to overhaul some of the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance programs were dealt a setback Tuesday when a reform bill failed to garner enough votes to proceed in the Senate.

The USA Freedom Act would have curbed powers granted to the NSA under the Patriot Act -- including the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records. It was defeated in a procedural vote of 58 to 46, two votes short of the requirement to proceed. The House version of the bill passed in May, but many technology companies and privacy advocates pulled their support of the bill after several provisions were watered down.

The bill had the support of the White House, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, and a host of tech companies but was opposed by all but a handful of Republicans, some of whom were divided over the reason for their opposition.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who earlier this year filed a lawsuit over NSA phone surveillance, urged defeat of the bill, arguing that it didn't go far enough to restrict the NSA's surveillance powers.

"One common misconception is that the Patriot Act applies only to foreigners -- when in reality, the Patriot Act was instituted precisely to widen the surveillance laws to include US citizens," Rand said in a statement after the vote. "Today's vote to oppose further consideration of the Patriot Act extension proves that we are one step closer to restoring civil liberties in America."

Others such as Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) argued that the legislation would diminish US defenses in the face of a growing terrorist threat.

"As the rise of ISIL has demonstrated, the world is as dangerous as ever, and extremists are being cultivated and recruited right here at home," Rubio said in a statement. "This legislation would significantly weaken and, in some cases, entirely do away with some of the most important counter-terrorism capabilities at our disposal, which is why I will not support it."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had championed the bill, said it was disappointed in the vote but expressed optimism for its future.

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Bill curbing NSA surveillance programs blocked in Senate

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