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.

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NSA surveillance bill defeated in Senate