Wednesday night, Rep. Amash’s amendment to the 2014 Defense Appropriations Bill narrowly failed in the House on a vote of 205-217. Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) made the following statement after voting for the amendment:

“When I was sworn in as a member of Congress, I took a solemn oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution – all of it. And I firmly believe that the current NSA practice of spying on all Americans – without a warrant – is a violation of the 4th Amendment. When this fact came to light, I immediately sent a list of questions of this program to the NSA and the FBI – today, four weeks later, we have received no answers.

I am very disappointed in the narrow failure of the bipartisan amendment by Rep. Justin Amash that would have ended this indiscriminate, warrantless Government collection of private data on all Americans. Rest assured though, I will continue to press for full accountability of the Administration officials, nameless bureaucrats, members of Congress, and secret judges who allow this dubious practice to continue. We do not have to sacrifice our liberties in order to provide security for this nation.

Lastly, I was also supportive of the successful efforts to limit the ability of this Administration to involve us in another civil war – in either Syria or Egypt. Let’s hope the Senate will agree with our actions here to prohibit military intervention in these countries.”