There was no "legal" way to discuss mass surveillance. Wyden tried time and time again.

[sabrina 1]

19. The effort wasn't expected to get even close to a successful outcome. In fact it failed by only

a very small margin. It was described by members of Congress as a 'first step' and they were very pleased that so many members resisted the pressures they usually cave to, and helped get it to a narrow margin vote. That has encouraged them to prepare more bills with bi-partisan support.

Democrats especially resisted the pressures on them and a large majority of them voted for the bill.

Now the Leadership can get on the right side of this and instead of applying pressure to 'hold off' or vote 'no', they have the opportunity now to seize the moment and demonstrate what 'winning' means.

But the funding at stake is likely to cause huge opposition to any bill that attempts to cut it off. All the more reason now for every member to push back finally.

It was the closeness of the bill that scared them, imo. They had worked so hard to make Snowden the target and they failed.