Senate rejects amendment limiting warrantless government internet searches

(Image credit: ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/AFP via Getty Image)

The Senate on Wednesday fell one vote shy of passing a bipartisan amendment drafted by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) that sought to limit warrantless government Internet searches and browsing history.

The vote required a three-fifths majority, and only 59 lawmakers supported it. The 37 no-votes were comprised of both Republicans and Democrats, while four senators, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), didn't cast a vote, though it's reportedly unclear if their participation would have changed the result.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), one of 10 Democrats to reject the amendment, said he did so out of concern that passing it would effectively kill the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act completely, while Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) thinks the FISA court will serve as a "sufficient check" against such requests on its own. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.