In a victory for the Obama administration, US lawmakers have narrowly defeated a bipartisan proposal to sharply curb the controversial phone surveillance programme that was exposed by fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
In a 205-217 vote, the House of Representatives rejected an effort to restrict the National Security Agency's (NSA) ability to collect Americans' telephone records.
A coalition of libertarian, liberal and conservative lawmakers pushed for curbs on the blanket collection of those records, arguing that it was too broad and intrusive.
The rejected amendment would have blocked funding for the NSA programme which gathers details of every call made by or to a US phone, unless the records were part of a specific investigation.
It was introduced by Michigan Republican Justin Amash, who warned during the debate that the proposal's critics would "use the same tactic every government throughout history has used to justify its violation of rights: fear.
"They'll tell you that the government must violate the rights of the American people to protect us against those who hate our freedom," Amash said yesterday during a passionate debate.
Snowden, a former NSA contractor, last month revealed details of NSA's bulk phone tracking effort and a companion e -mail collection initiative through leaks of classified information to media outlets. Snowden, 30, is still holed up at the Moscow airport and has been charged with espionage.
Since then, a number of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have been highly critical of the sweeping way in which the Obama administration applies telephone surveillance that is overseen by a secret court.
The lawmakers had joined forces in response to revelations by Snowden that the NSA has collected the phone records of millions of Americans - a practice that critics say goes beyond the kind of collection that has been authorised by Congress.
Obama administration as well as NSA director Gen Keith Alexander, have spent weeks defending the controversial surveillance programme.
National security officials personally appealed to House members, hoping to derail the vote. They have claimed that phone and e-mail surveillance have helped thwart terror plots.
President Barack Obama also has stressed that the NSA was not using the surveillance program to listen in on phone calls; that it only collected metadata, including numbers, times of calls and dates.
James Clapper, the nation's top intelligence official, released a statement before the vote noting that he had joined others in opposing the measure.
