WASHINGTON     The Senate on Tuesday blocked a bill to end bulk    collection of Americans' phone records by the National Security Agency,    dealing a blow to President Barack Obama's primary proposal to    rein in domestic surveillance.  
    The 58-42 vote was two short of the 60 needed to proceed with    debate under Senate procedural rules. Voting was largely along    party lines, with most Democrats supporting the bill and most    Republicans voting against it.    The Republican-controlled House had previously passed its    ownNSAbill.  
    The legislation would have ended theNSA'scollection    of domestic calling records, instead requiring the agency to    obtain a court order each time it wanted to analyze the records    in terrorism cases, and query records held by the telephone    companies. In many cases the companies store the records for 18    months.  
    The revelation that the spying agency had been collecting and    storing domestic phone records since shortly after the    terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was among the most    significant by Edward Snowden, a former agency network    administrator who turned over secretNSAdocuments to    journalists. The agency collects only so-called metadata     numbers called, not names  and not the content of    conversations. But the specter of the intelligence agency    holding domestic calling records was deeply disquieting to many    Americans.  
    The bill had drawn support from technology companies and civil    liberties activists. Its failure means there has been little in    the way of policy changes as a result of Snowden's disclosures.  
    Pressured to act, Obama in January proposed curbing    theNSA's authority and the House in May passed a bill to    do so. While the measure was pending,    theNSAcontinued to collect American landline    calling records, though the program does not cover most mobile    phone records.  
    The law authorizing the bulk collection, a provision of the    post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, will expire at the end of 2015. That    means Congress would have to pass legislation re-authorizing    the program for it to continue.  
    For that reason, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the    chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, abandoned her    previous opposition to the bill. "If we do not pass the bill,    we will lose this program," Feinstein said on the Senate floor.  
    "This bill increases trust and confidence and credibility of    our intelligence system," said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.  
    But Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican    on the Intelligence Committee, called the bill "totally flawed"    and said theNSAneeds the ability to sift through    domestic calling records and hold the records. "We have under    surveillance any number of Americans who are committed to    jihad," Chambliss said.  
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Senate Republicans block bill: NSA will continue monitoring your calls (+video)