Well shit.A vote to proceed with the USA FREEDOM Act failed in the Senate after it did not collect the 60 votes that it needed. It failed 58 to 42.
Before the vote, I noticed a slight change in the tone of people that I had on the phone: There was optimism that it could make it.
It didn’t. You can stick a fork in NSA reform for this year, and this Congress. And, as I’ve said recently, given the current tone of GOP leadership in the Senate, it doesn’t appear that we’ll get much done in the next few years. I’m not alone in that pessimism.