Lawmakers voted 277-148 to approve the extension, but the new GOP leadership had brought the measure to the floor under a special expedited process that required a two-thirds majority to pass. By that standard, the measure fell seven votes shorts.
More than two dozen Republicans, including a number of conservative freshmen members, joined with a large bloc of liberal Democrats in opposing the extension, which would have kept the anti-terror enforcement tools on the books through Dec. 8 as Congress debates a more extensive revision of the bill. Both liberal civil rights groups and conservative libertarians have attacked surveillance and law enforcement provisions of the bill as giving the government too much power.
More than two dozen Republicans, including a number of conservative freshmen members, joined with a large bloc of liberal Democrats in opposing the extension, which would have kept the anti-terror enforcement tools on the books through Dec. 8 as Congress debates a more extensive revision of the bill. Both liberal civil rights groups and conservative libertarians have attacked surveillance and law enforcement provisions of the bill as giving the government too much power.
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