Senate Republicans Nix NSA Reform

Senate Republicans defended the government’s vast domestic spying powers Tuesday night by blocking legislation to end the NSA’s bulk collection of metadata. The USA Freedom Act couldn’t overcome a GOP filibuster, which was unexpectedly joined by Rand Paul, who opposed the bill’s extension of several provisions of the Patriot Act. Ted Cruz sponsored the Freedom Act and found himself “suddenly thrust into the role of the insider, looking to fix the NSA from within the system,” Olivia Nuzzi and Tim Mak write. “It didn’t work.”