Florida Senator Apparently Voted The Wrong Way Over USA Freedom Act [UPDATE: Or Not]

from the you-had-one-job dept

Wed, Nov 19th 2014 10:14am — Mike Masnick

Update: And, of course just as this story came out, Nelson's office finally spoke on the issue after dodging requests from multiple reporters all morning. They told Kevin Collier that the vote was not a mistake, despite the rumors and questions (and the fact that he was the only Democrat to vote against cloture. The original post is below. According to Collier, Nelson's office says that he feared the bill would have "undone a provision allowing for retention of certain telephone records that he feels is helpful in preventing future terrorist attacks." That's a funny statement, of course, given that the program in question has yet to be shown to have prevented any terrorist attacks. Ah well...

Oh, Florida. As we noted last night, the Senate failed to move the USA Freedom Act forward in a cloture vote. Sixty votes were needed to bring the bill to a real vote, and only 58 made it. Many people focused on the fact that "Republicans blocked the bill" while noting that the vote was mostly along party lines, with just four Republicans voting for it: Senators Mike Lee, Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski and Ted Cruz. A lot of the focus was on Senator Rand Paul, who is vocally opposed to NSA spying, but voted against this bill, saying he didn't think it went far enough (nearly all of the other no votes were because they felt it went too far). Bizarrely, after voting no on cloture, Rand Paul now claims he's sad -- and that "they probably needed my vote." Uh, yeah.

However, few have mentioned that there was only one Democrat who went the other way and voted against cloture: Senator Bill Nelson of Florida. Now there are reports from Alvaro Bedoya (a recent Senate staffer) that Nelson actually meant to vote for cloture, but voted no "by mistake." I have a request in with his office to see if this is accurate, but haven't heard back yet [see the update above if you haven't read it already]. However, that's quite an incredible mistake if true. It's certainly not unheard of for elected officials to accidentally vote the wrong way, but on major issues like this, they're usually pretty careful. And, yes, if Nelson had voted for cloture it would have only brought the vote up to 59, but that just highlights how important Rand Paul's vote was in killing off this attempt at reform.

No matter what, can't we at least expect our Senators to vote the way they actually planned to vote?

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: bill nelson, nsa, rand paul, surveillance, usa freedom act

21 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Mason Wheeler (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:20am

Was Senator Reid's SOPA stuff still in there? If so, it's probably a blessing in disguise that it didn't pass...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:21am

Updated
Just as this post came out, the Senator's office finally said that the vote wasn't a mistake, despite fairly credible claims that it was. The post has been updated.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:22am

Re:
Was Senator Reid's SOPA stuff still in there? If so, it's probably a blessing in disguise that it didn't pass...

No. That never had any chance of moving and once our story came out, his office insisted they had no intention of pushing it (they claimed they never did, but our information was supported by very credible sources).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Just Another Anonymous Troll, 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:22am

"No matter what, can't we at least expect our Senators to vote the way they actually planned to vote?"
No.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:24am

Broken Representatives, Broken Electorate
No matter what, can't we at least expect our Senators to vote the way they actually planned to vote?

Of course not, which is why for the past few years public approval of Congress is generally low.

Unfortunately, it does not help explain why the incumbency rate is generally so high.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:30am

Even if we had to sacrifice USA Freedom, better than than to have Reed and his kronies trying to attach the Commercial Felony Streaing Act, or any other part of SOPA to the bill.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:40am

Senators CAN change their vote
I'm pretty sure senators can change their vote if they misspeak or something.

I've definitely read stories about Senator Harry Reid changing his vote on things at the minute when it becomes clear it won't get 60 votes for cloture (because of obscure senate rules that the majority leader can't bring something up to vote again if it fails to clear a filibuster, unless the majority leader voted against it).

There's also a few videos apparently when the senate was voting on Obamacare, where Reid accidentally voted the wrong way, but then quickly changed his vote as other senators start to laugh at his mistake.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:40am

Re: Broken Representatives, Broken Electorate
*Reads the update*

Ah, the ol' "I meant to do that" answer. I like to say that too when I screw up.

Nobody ever believes me though. I must lack the gravitas of a senator.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mason Wheeler (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 10:43am

Re: Re:
Well in that case... wow, that sucks! :(

At least the Keystone vote went the right way, by a similarly narrow margin.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 11:00am

Re: Broken Representatives, Broken Electorate
"Unfortunately, it does not help explain why the incumbency rate is generally so high."

Thanks, Diebold!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 11:06am

Re:
the "sopa stuff" was never "in there". It might have been offered as an amendment, and if so, ideally it would have failed to pass, but there was never an idea, or an attempt to just stick it in the legislation - it would not have been possible under senate rules at the time it was reported.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 11:08am

Re: Senators CAN change their vote
votes can only be changed before they are closed - ie. you can't change your vote later that day (at least not without unanimous consent - the senate can do anything (non-controversial) by UC
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 11:11am

Re: Senators CAN change their vote
I've definitely read stories about Senator Harry Reid changing his vote on things at the minute when it becomes clear it won't get 60 votes for cloture (because of obscure senate rules that the majority leader can't bring something up to vote again if it fails to clear a filibuster, unless the majority leader voted against it).

From what I've heard on this, it's true that *leadership* will do that, but it's almost unheard of for rank-and-file.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 11:26am

I'm still in the camp that extending Section 215 was not worth the marginal reforms. So blessing in disguise?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Baron von Robber, 19 Nov 2014 @ 11:36am

So by playing the "What If..." game
If the Senate was made up of 100% Republicans, it would have been around 97% Nay and failed, no change.

If the Senate was mad up of 100% Democrats, it would have been around 98% Yay and passed, change.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
cubicleslave (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 12:16pm

Well it is the senator from Florida. Can we honestly say we are not surprised he screwed up his vote?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 12:38pm

Re:
That's too funny. If you truly believe that Section 215 is not going to be extended because of this vote (or any reason) then i've got a bridge to sell you off the Shoulder of Orion.

Grow up.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 4:28pm

Re: Re:
You'd be surprised at how anti-NSA the House has turned...plus we can turn this into another SOPA-style victory. Resigning oneself to defeat gets you nothing, it's what they want
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2014 @ 4:52pm

Re: Re: Re:
Hey, i'm with you on the grounds that if people cared enough we could turn this into SOPA style victory. The problem is that outside of a few enlightened news blogs like techdirt here and there, it's either people don't care, or they support what the NSA is doing.

Case in point, today i sent the article about the Winter Haven School raid to six co-workers. Three came back saying they had no problem with the drill except for the fact that one of the hand guns were loaded.

This is what we're up against. And this is why it'll _never_fucking_change before it's too late.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 19 Nov 2014 @ 4:55pm

Re:
I'm still in the camp that extending Section 215 was not worth the marginal reforms. So blessing in disguise?

No, because Congress will extend 215 no matter what. And now it won't have any of the associated reforms.

So, no.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Nov 2014 @ 4:18am

Re: Re:
OR MAYBE THE SHOULDER OF URANUS MIRITE GUYZ?!?!
[ link to this | view in thread ]