Collecting It All

Sen. Susan Collins has been on the record as an enthusiastic supporter of the NSA's bulk data collection program for some time. But Intelligence Committee records indicate that she's now backed up her rhetoric with votes:

While the committee billed the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Improvements Act of 2013 as a means to increase "privacy protections and public transparency of the National Security Agency call-records program," the 15-member panel narrowly defeated a series of amendments senators offered proposing stricter reforms.

One of the reforms--a three-year cap on the retention of telephone records in the main database--went down, 7-8, even though it had the support of Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) The amendment failed in a party line vote where Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, joined the GOP to kill the amendment. (Emphasis added.)