Yesterday’s House Vote, and What Comes Next

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives voted on the Amash Amendment, which would have halted the NSA’s vast and unconstitutional program of phone record collection.

The amendment failed. And, of course, even if it had passed – and gotten Senate support too – the President would have vetoed it.

However.

The vote was much closer than expected: 205-217. If just seven more Congressmen had supported this bill, it would have passed. That’s remarkable.

Also remarkable is the incredibly bipartisan nature of the vote. 111 Democrats and 94 Republicans voted yes. One surprising “yes” vote was Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., who co-authored the original PATRIOT Act. He says the law was never intended to give the NSA so much power.

Most remarkable of all was the deluge of public support, your support, for the bill. According to this New York Times article:

…a web of privacy activists, libertarian conservatives and…