For all the recent hoopla over America’s far-reaching surveillance activities, the US House of Representatives has voted to let the National Security Agency (NSA) continue to operate the programme of secret collection of telephone records of millions of Americans.
The House on Wednesday narrowly defeated a challenge to the domestic surveillance programme, while the issue of external surveillance by mining the Internet to keep a tab on foreigners was not even brought up.
The NSA’s operation of the two secret programmes was revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has remained stuck in Moscow airport for a month, still awaiting the Russian nod for a temporary asylum.
In the House, an unlikely alliance between the Obama administration and Republican Speaker John Boehner helped in the rejection of a proposal that would have sharply restricted NSA’s phone surveillance programme. The Republican-controlled House defeated the measure 217-205.
The proposal, sponsored by Republican lawmaker Justin Amash and Democratic lawmaker John Conyers, sought to restrict the collection of records only when there was a connection to relevant ongoing investigations.
An unlikely coalition of lawmakers from the rival parties pressed for the curbs on the blanket collection of phone records, contending it was too broad and intrusive.
As it turned out, 134 Republicans joined hands with 83 Democrats to reject the measure, while 94 Republicans and 111 Democrats supported the curbs. In a rare move, Speaker Boehner and House Democratic leader banded together to vote against the curbs.
Congressman Amash told reporters his amendment was “about the American people versus the elites in Washington”. Arguing that the NSA programme represented “a clear violation” of Fourth Amendment protections, he said his proposal would have ensured that the government followed the original intent of the Patriot Act, the anti-terror law that authorized increased government surveillance powers after 9/11.