The Senate blocked legislation Wednesday that would expand FBI surveillance powers.
Senators voted 58-38—two votes shy of the 60 required to move the legislation—in a vote that took nearly an hour to complete.
The amendment introduced by Republican senators John McCain and Richard Burr was added to the Justice Department spending bill and would have allowed the FBI to search Internet browsers and email records without a warrant. The McCain-Burr amendment would not allow the FBI to read the content of emails, but rather the email subject lines, addresses of the parties exchanging the emails, and when the communication took place.
The legislation, which is backed by the FBI, would also make permanent the existing ability under the Patriot Act to monitor “lone wolf” suspects who do not have ties to terrorist groups such as ISIS.
“It is disappointing that my colleagues in the Senate voted down our amendment to give law enforcement a counterterrorism authority that the FBI considers its number one priority,” McCain said.
This amendment was introduced in the wake of the Orlando attack as a search in for an answer continues in Congress. House Democrats have staged a sit-in demanding a vote on gun control measures, while multiple gun control bills were rejected by the Senate this week.
“There are young people in this country that are self-radicalizing,” McCain said on the Senate floor. “What vehicle is doing the self-radicalizing? The Internet.”
Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat and staunch privacy rights advocate who voted against the bill, said it “won’t make our country safer, but it will take away crucial checks and balances that protect our freedom.”
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont also noted the bill is “opposed by major technology companies and privacy groups across the political spectrum—from FreedomWorks to Google to the ACLU.”
FreedomWorks, a libertarian group, saw the legislation as an attack on the right to privacy and urged Senators to “protect Americans against warrantless searches.”
“The Fourth Amendment is an important protection against government intrusions into our lives, and we should be wary of any legislation that threatens such a fundamental right,” FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon.
There is the possibility for a revote on the McCain-Burr amendment, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell switched his vote from “yes” to “no” in a procedural attempt to allow reconsideration of the legislation.
It is unclear when a revote will be held.
Lindsey Curnutte is a Fund for American Studies intern at THE WEEKLY STANDARD and a junior at Ohio University.
