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Because that was the Democrat approach (USA FREEDOM Act) to doing this. Most of the Democrats naturally voted against the Republican approach:

http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/114/senate/1/195

It's less about policy than politics, as you'd probably expect.

That was simply a vote to extend the current program by two months:

"That was immediately followed by rejection of a two-month extension to the existing programs. The vote was 45-54, again short of the 60-vote threshold."

I think it's pretty clear the policy was they don't want an extension of the Patriot Act, which I think is a good thing. I also think there is a lot of confusion here, everything I've read about the USA Freedom Act seems pretty sensible and addresses privacy concerns. It completely changes how the NSA could gain access to phone records and bears no resemblance to the blanket powers the Patriot Act allowed.

I'm not sure, but it remains a pretty strong indicator of why we need good multipartisan cooperation in any good society.

Hey, everyone that voted for one of these Democratic bozos... you should take a moment to email your senator.