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 The "USA Freedom Act" was supported by an unusual coalition of
Democrats and conservative Republicans concerned about Americans'
privacy, but failed 58 to 42, falling short of the 60 votes needed
to move ahead.
The measure is unlikely to become law anytime soon, as Republicans
will hold a majority of seats in the Senate after Jan. 1.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the future Senate Majority
Leader, came out strongly against the bill in a Senate speech on
Tuesday morning, concerns matched by several hawkish Republicans
including former government officials.
"If our aim is to degrade and destroy ISIL, as the president has
said, then that's going to require smart policies and firm
determination. At a minimum, we shouldn't be doing anything to make
the situation worse," McConnell said.
The legislation was the first considered by the full Senate that
addressed privacy concerns raised last year after revelations by
former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showing U.S. intelligence was
collecting and storing communications metadata, such as the records
of millions of Americans' telephone calls.
Among other things, the bill would have required the NSA to ask a
communications company for records of a specific person when
investigating a terrorism case, rather than indiscriminately
sweeping up records.
The House of Representatives passed a similar, but less restrictive,
version of the bill earlier this year. The White House had supported
the legislation, denying assertions that it would benefit terrorist
groups.
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The measure is not likely to be taken up again anytime soon.
Republican successes in elections on Nov. 4 gave the party control
of a majority of seats in the Senate and a larger majority in the
House starting in January.
Many U.S. technology companies also sought the changes after seeing
their business suffer as foreign governments worried data might be
handed over to American intelligence.
A group of them, including AOL Inc <AOL.N>, Apple Inc <AAPL.O>,
Facebook Inc <FB.O>, Google Inc <GOOGL.O>, Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O>,
Twitter Inc <TWTR.N> and Yahoo Inc <YHOO.O>, had sent a letter
urging the Senate to pass the bill.
The bill's backers vowed not to give up. "I will continue to fight
to preserve our constitution and our rights as Americans," said
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, the bill's lead sponsor, after its
defeat.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by David Storey, Dan
Grebler and Ken Wills)
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