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WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly defeated a bill designed to overhaul the National Security Agency by halting the collection of phone records of Americans who are not suspected of a crime.

The bill was two votes shy of getting the 60 it needed to pass the USA Freedom Act.

Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., supported the defeat of the bill.

"This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs," he said prior to the Tuesday vote.

Under the potential legislation, the NSA would not have been able to collect phone records of Americans not suspected of a crime. Instead, phone companies would hold on to the records only as long as they currently do under the normal course of business.

The USA Freedom Act isn't likely to pass the next time Congress convenes now that Republicans have control of both houses. It is likely to come up for debate though, as part of discussions about parts of the Patriot Act anti-terrorism law, which are set to expire in June.

The NSA came under fire in 2013 after former CIA worker Edward Snowden leaked classified information about the agency's widespread practice of collecting phone records.

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NSA reform bill dies in the Senate

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Republican opponents of White House-backed legislation that would rein in NSA surveillance programs narrowly blocked the Senate from taking up the bill Tuesday after warning it could help terrorists escape detection.

On a tally of 58 to 42, a procedural vote failed to get the supermajority 60 votes it needed to advance.

Supporters of the USA Freedom Act, a rare mix of liberal Democrats and libertarian Republicans, hoped public outrage over the secret mass collection of phone and Internet records -- revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden -- would lead to passage of the reforms. But many opponents argued the changes would hamper the National Security Agency's ability to track nimble and elusive terrorists.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell led the charge against the bill, saying the new rules would prevent the United States from capturing the terrorists who killed Peter Kassig, a U.S. citizen doing aid work in Syria. Kassig was executed over the weekend.

"Many of these fighters are familiar with America's intelligence capabilities, and many are savvy with communications. These are terrorists who know how to use encryption, and they how to change devices quickly," he said. "This is the worst time to be tying our hands behind our backs."

"It basically takes us back to a pre-9/11 lack of capacity to identify terrorists making telephone calls in the United States, said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican. "I think that sort of unilateral disarmament would be bad for the country."

McConnell also argued the measure should be debated and voted on in the new Congress next year, not by lawmakers in a lame duck session who are leaving Washington.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the bill's principal author, disputed the critics saying that while it puts checks on the NSA's powerful capabilities, it "does so responsibly."

"The bill contains key reforms to safeguard Americans' privacy by prohibiting the indiscriminate collection of their data. It also provides for greater accountability and transparency of the government's surveillance programs," he said. "The bill also ensures that the intelligence community has the tools it needs to keep our country safe."

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Senate blocks NSA surveillance curb

Senate Republicans rose to the defense of the National Security Agency on Tuesday by filibustering a bill that would have halted the agencys phone-snooping program, saying it is now more critical than ever amid advancing terrorism in the Middle East and fears of homegrown terrorism in the U.S.

The vote, in which 41 Republicans and one Democrat banded together for the filibuster, leaves the most controversial part of the Patriot Act in place.

It also ends efforts to rein in the NSA program for the foreseeable future because Republicans will take control of the chamber early next year and are unlikely to revisit the issue.

This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs, said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who pointed to the advance of Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria. The threat from ISIL is real. Its different from what weve faced before. And if were going to overcome it if our aim is to degrade and destroy ISIL, as the president has said then thats going to require smart policies and firm determination.

Pressure will now build on President Obama to make changes on his own. He has put some limits on the NSA, but asked Congress for guidance and said he strongly supported the legislation the Republicans defeated.

Still, the NSAs snooping days may be numbered. The controversial sections of the Patriot Act are up for renewal next year, and unless Congress can reach an agreement, those powers will expire.

Tuesdays vote was a blow for privacy advocates, who won overwhelming support in the House this year for a bill that dramatically curtailed NSA snooping and other bulk-records collection by the government.

The advocates tried to build a similar conservative-liberal coalition in the Senate, but most Republicans balked.

Tonight, Senate Republicans have failed to answer the call of the American people who elected them, and all of us, to stand up and to work across the aisle, said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who pressed for the vote, fearing GOP infighting would doom chances for a bill next year.

Mr. Leahy accused Republicans of scare tactics to try to preserve the Patriot Act authority.

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NSA phone snooping upheld by Senate Republicans' filibuster

Legislation to keep most Americans' phone records out of government hands was defeated in the Senate, dooming for now prospects of national security reforms that supporters said would protect the privacy of law-abiding citizens.

A motion failed Tuesday to get the necessary 60 votes needed to cut off debate on the bill sponsored by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), with most Republicans voting against. The final vote was 58 to 42.

One of its most outspoken foes was incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said stopping the National Security Agency from collecting telephone dialing records "would end one of our nation's critical capabilities to gather significant intelligence on terrorist threats."

Citing the recent beheadings of U.S. citizens in Syria, McConnell said: "This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced just before the vote that she strongly supported the bill, dubbed the USA Freedom Act. Feinstein's support had been in doubt.

"I supported the USA Freedom Act because it may be the best opportunity to reform the metadata collection program while maintaining the government's ability to use this tool to prevent terrorist attacks at home and abroad," she said.

Born of Edward Snowden's revelations that the NSA was secretly archiving data from nearly every telephone call made in the United States, the Leahy bill would have required the NSA to request such records from telephone companies rather than collect and store the information itself.

Except in emergencies, U.S. intelligence agencies and the FBI would have had to seek approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to access and use the data, and only in cases involving suspected terrorism or espionage. A similar procedure is used now to access the NSA database, but critics said the current system is open to abuse.

"The bill contains key reforms to safeguard Americans' privacy by prohibiting the indiscriminate collection of their data," Leahy said. "It also provides for greater accountability and transparency of the government's surveillance programs."

At issue are telephone company records of customers and the phone numbers they have dialed, including date, time and duration of calls, but not the conversations themselves.

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NSA surveillance bill defeated in Senate

FILE: An aerial view of the NSA's Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah.(AP)

The Senate on Tuesday blocked a bill to end bulk collection of American 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. 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 own NSA bill.

The legislation would have ended the NSA's collection 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 secret NSA documents 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 the NSA's authority and the House in May passed a bill to do so. While the measure was pending, the NSA continued 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 of California, 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 Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

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Key GOP senators oppose NSA phone records measure