Senate Blocks Vote on Curbing NSA’s Bulk Data Collection Program

The Senate blocked legislation that would have limited the National Security Agencys bulk collection of phone records, more than year after Edward Snowden exposed the extent of U.S. government surveillance programs.

Senate leaders failed to get the 60 votes needed to advance the bill yesterday. Its unlikely a new version can be drafted for another vote before the congressional term expires this year.

The bill was an attempt to force spy agencies to collect only information sought through a court order and exclude the use of broad searches like by ZIP codes. A coalition of Internet and technology companies, which include Google Inc. (GOOG) and Twitter Inc. (TWTR), supported the Senate bill while saying the Republican-backed House version passed in May would still allow bulk collection of Internet user data.

The USA Freedom Act eliminates tools critical to the intelligence communitys ability to prevent terrorist attacks, and its adoption would greatly degrade our ability to fight domestic terrorism in particular, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the top Republican on the intelligence committee, said by e-mail.

The Senate, with a Democratic majority, needed to act on the vote now before Republicans, many of whom support government surveillance programs, take control of the Senate in January following key wins in this months elections. Republicans already control the House.

The 58-42 vote to move the measure forward came mostly along party lines.

U.S. Internet and technology companies say theyve already lost contracts with foreign governments over the issue. Forrester Research Inc. (FORR) estimates the backlash against NSA spying could cost as much as $180 billion in lost business. Facebook Inc. (FB), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) are among the companies pushing for limits.

Americans learned of the spying in June 2013 when Snowden, a former NSA contractor revealed a program under which the U.S. uses court orders to compel companies to turn over data about their users. Documents divulged by Snowden also uncovered NSA hacking of fiber-optic cables abroad and installation of surveillance tools into routers, servers and other network equipment.

Apple and Google have retaliated by offering stronger security, including on new smartphones, to automatically shield photos, contact lists and other documents from the government. That, in turn, has heightened tensions with law enforcement agencies that want access to the data for criminal investigations.

The Senate bill, S. 2685, was designed to end one of the NSAs most controversial domestic spy programs, through which it collects and stores the phone records of millions of people not suspected of any wrongdoing. In addition to curbing data collection, the legislation would allow companies to publicly reveal the number and types of orders they receive from the government to hand over user data.

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Senate Blocks Vote on Curbing NSA’s Bulk Data Collection Program