The US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to continue collecting data on US phone calls.
Lawmakers rejected the amendment that would have blocked funding for the National Security Agency's program, which gathers details of every call made by or to a US phone.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is Florida Republican Representative.
"The yeahs (voting yes) are 205 and the nays (voting no) are 217, the amendment is not adopted."
Whilst critics say the proposal violates the public's rights, supporters of the amendment say the practice is essential to America's counter-terrorism efforts.
They argue that the surveillance operations have been successful in thwarting at least 50 insurgency plots across 20 countries, including a dozen directed at the US.
These NSA surveillance revelations were made public by former U.S. intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, who's currently in Moscow's airport waiting for asylum papers.
