Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said a National Security Agency program that collects telephone records of millions of Americans is helpful in preventing terrorism.
Nelson was the only Democrat on Tuesday night to vote against the USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the government’s bulk collection of telephone records. The vote on the motion to open debate failed 58-42.
{mosads}”Sen. Nelson has consistently supported measures he feels aid the intelligence community in preventing future terrorist attacks,” spokesman Ryan Brown said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“That’s why he voted ‘no’ on the measure last night,” he added. “He believes the bill would have undone a provision allowing for retention of certain telephone records that he feels is helpful in preventing future terrorist attacks.”
There was some confusion on social media the night before about whether Nelson had actually meant to vote against the bill, which failed to advance by two votes. His office confirmed the vote was intentional.
His office also pointed to an op-ed he wrote last year that defended the collection program that sweeps up millions of U.S. call records, which includes phone numbers, durations and times, but not content.
In the op-ed, he also blasts former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for leaking the documents that revealed the program to the public.
“Again, both are lawful and court-approved programs,” Nelson said of the phone record collection and another program. “Congress has been briefed extensively on both; and both operate pursuant to court orders issued by federal judges who sit on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) legislation would have ended the government’s bulk collection and storage of Americans’ phone and other business records and would have created privacy advocates to argue in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Nelson was the only Democrat to vote against the motion, while four Republicans crossed over to vote in favor of advancing the measure. Any reform to the program will now almost certainly be pushed back to the next Congress.