US Senate Republicans yesterday blocked a sweeping overhaul of a National Security Agency program that would have ended the government´s controversial bulk collection of data about Americans.
The vote marks a blow for President Barack Obama, who had supported the reforms, and sets up a showdown in coming months as key surveillance provisions expire in mid-2015.
The USA Freedom Act, also backed by Silicon Valley groups and major technology firms, marked an ambitious bipartisan effort to reform the nation´s surveillance apparatus following the revelations of government spying by former security contractor Edward Snowden.
The measure earned a majority vote, 58-42, with four Republicans joining all but one Democrat in favor.
But it fell just two votes short of the 60-vote threshold to overcome blocking tactics. It would have helped put a check on the NSA, whose clandestine program has been collecting up vast amounts of electronic data on US citizens as it pursues information on terror threats.
It would have replaced the NSA´s blanket authority with a far narrower one allowing it to obtain call records from phone companies but only in specific cases.
