A bill to restrict the National Security Agency’s ability to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk because not enough Republicans would join their Democratic colleagues in support of it.
Too bad. We hope this isn’t an ominous sign for the future of civil liberties after the Senate transitions to a Republican majority in the new year.
And maybe it needn’t be. After all, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky complained that the bill didn’t require phone companies to hold on to the data — which they generally keep for 18 months. That hardly sounds like an insurmountable critique.
Senate Republicans ought to be able to craft a bill of their own that satisfies Americans’ desire to protect their privacy from government snooping. And it should be a high priority when they take up business in 2015.
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