The House has rejected an amendment to stop the National Security Agency from tracking the telephone data of seemingly every American.
Many privacy activists considered it the best immediate chance to address what they consider vast overreach by the NSA.
The vote was 217-205.
The bill was introduced by a Republican from Michigan named Justin Amash, and it moved to defund the agency. Here's the partisan breakdown.
Democrats went 111-83 for Amash; GOP was 134-94 against the NSA plan http://t.co/0Qr3oS5CF6
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) July 24, 2013
The bill's enemies included Michele Bachmann, who maybe defended the Obama White House for the first time in her life, and Republican Mike Rogers from Michigan, who said that passing the amendment would take "us back to September 10." Sounds like the cowardly early aught-era "ninaleven warren terra" coalition got the band back together for this one. I'm sure President Obama is proud of the company he's keeping tonight.
