Amendment to Defund NSA Phone Surveillance Program Is Defeated

An amendment to stop the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records was narrowly defeated by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday evening with a vote tally of 205 "yeas" and 217 "nays."

The amendment (PDF) had been introduced by Republican libertarian Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.). Its goal was to end the NSA's "blanket collection" of Americans' phone records, as in documents leaked by Edward Snowden in early June

The so-called Amash Amendment received strong support from Internet activists, which tried to rally citizens to defund the NSA program that sweeps up telephone metadata on Americans' phone calls