NSA critics lose in House, but show strength

While the White House won a victory on surveillance work at the National Security Agency on Wednesday as the House rejected a plan to limit NSA access to telephone records obtained through the Patriot Act, the close vote demonstrated that recent leaks about U.S. Intelligence work have made the program into a bipartisan target.

"As you go home for August recess, you will be asked: Did you oppose the suspicionless collection of every American’s phone records?" said Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), who led calls for change.

Amash and other critics argued in vain that the NSA is going far beyond what the Congress intended, and is not limiting its anti-terror searches to material that is relevant to a specific terror investigation.

"In the NSA's interpretation, "relevant" is all the data, all the time," said Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX).

But a majority of Republicans voted against Barton and Amash, as the GOP split 134-94 against the plan to limit access to telephone records.

"This program has stopped dozens of terrorist attacks," said Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who voted to keep the NSA program intact. "That means it saved untold American lives."

"We can't deal in false narratives, and a false narrative has emerged that the federal government is taking in the content of Americans' phone calls. It's not true," said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

While the debate showcased the schism among Republicans, the same differences were also evident among Democrats, as they voted 111-83 in favor of the Amash plan on the NSA, in essence voting to rebuke their own President.

Civil liberties groups were heartened by the close vote, arguing the tide is turning against wide-ranging government surveillance operations.

"Spying on innocent Americans must stop," said the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Just 7 votes in the other direction would have ended the NSA's bulk collection of phone records," said Sina Khanifar, who helped put together "defundthensa.com" to call for change at the NSA.

Here is the rundown of the House vote on the NSA phone records amendment:

H R 2397      RECORDED VOTE      24-Jul-2013      6:51 PM
      AUTHOR(S):  Amash of Michigan Amendment No. 100
      QUESTION:  On Agreeing to the Amendment