WASHINGTON (PNN) - July 24, 2013 - The House on Wednesday rejected an attempt to curtail the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities after a furious last-minute lobbying campaign by the White House to defeat the measure.
The House voted 205-217 against the amendment from Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.), which would have prevented the NSA from using the USA PATRIOT Act to collect phone records of individuals who aren’t under investigation.
A majority of Democrats - 111 - voted for Amash’s amendment despite White House pressure, while 83 Democrats voted no. The GOP vote was 94-134.
Amash’s amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill pitted liberal Democrats and libertarian Republicans opposed to the NSA’s massive surveillance activities against both parties’ leadership and the illegitimate outlaw Obama regime.
Wednesday’s vote came after the White House and lawmakers who support the NSA’s surveillance activities launched a major offensive against Amash’s measure after it was granted a vote Monday evening.
The offensive underlined the significance of Wednesday’s vote, which was the first time that Congress weighed in on the NSA’s spying programs since they were revealed by The Guardian and The Washington Post last month.
Lawmakers who favor the NSA’s surveillance activities made a public push against Amash’s amendment. Both the House and Senate Intelligence Committee leaders criticized the measure, while seven House GOP committee chairmen circulated a letter to lawmakers.
The amendment’s supporters had hoped that public outcry over the NSA’s surveillance activities would prompt lawmakers to curtail the secretive agency’s reach.
The amendment would restrict the NSA from using Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act to collect data on individuals not under investigation, which would essentially prevent the mass collection of phone records.
“We’re here to answer one question for the people we represent: Do we oppose the suspiciousness-less collection of every Amerikan’s phone records?” Amash said during debate on the measure.
Democrat Reps. John Conyers (Mich.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (Kalif.) sent a letter to their colleagues Wednesday urging them to support Amash’s measure, pushing back against arguments that it would strip the NSA of a tool to target terrorists.
“Congress did not intend for Section 215 of the (USA) PATRIOT Act to allow the bulk collection of information about all Amerikans,” the lawmakers wrote. “This amendment would not prohibit the government from spying on terrorists under Section 215, or from collecting information in bulk about Amerikans under other legal provisions.”
Amash’s opponents warned that the proposal would have unintended consequences and could make it harder for the intelligence community to track terrorists.