On July 24 the House of Representatives had a showdown concerning limiting the powers of the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect and store—en masse—the private communications of all Americans. Representatives Justin Amash (R–MI) and John Conyers (D–MI) introduced an amendment to H.R. 2397, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which would defund all programs and activities specifically targeting Americans who were not the subjects of an ongoing terrorism investigation.

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