A bill to limit the National Security Agencys surveillance has failed in a night vote by the U.S. Senate. The USA Freedom Act, created in the wake of Edward Snowdens NSA revelations, was unable to garner the minimum 60 votes to move forward. The final result was 58-42 against.

It was the first attempt at reining in the NSA during the post 9/11 era. Its failure means the agency will continue to have access to U.S. citizens phone records, despite support for the bill from the House of Representatives, the White House and even the NSA.

Tech companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo also supported the bill.

In addition to stopping the mass collection of phone records, the bill would have forced the government to disclose the number of people whose data had been collected and if they were American or not. It also would have created a panel of advocates for privacy and civil liberties in the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Court that would have ruled if law enforcement officials could spy or not.

For detractors of the bill, the victory is merely part one of a bigger fight to retain powers for data-collecting national security agencies. On June 1, 2015, section 215 of the Patriot Act will expire, which will curtail the NSAs legal ability to continue its data collection.

Its unclear whether Congress will reauthorize Section 215.

Tuesday nights vote to retain the status quo is an indication Section 215 may be in the balance, especially given that the House passed the Freedom Act in May.

In a fierce yet short debate prior to the vote, senators gave their thoughts on the act.

"This is theworst possible timeto be tying our hands behind our backs," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The substance of this bill is totally flawed, said Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. Fellow Republican from Indiana Dan Coats asked: Why do we have to rush this through in a lame-duck session? Id urge my colleagues to think through something that were going to regret later.

Original post:

NSA Surveillance To Continue: Senate Votes Against USA Freedom Act