UPDATE: Rep. Justin Amash's amendment to the defense appropriations bill, which would have cut funding for the National Security Agency's phone-record-collection program, just lost by a vote of 217–205.

Don't be upset — this is an AMAZING moment. The giant bipartisan coalition that formed in opposition to the NSA's spying programs was given just two days to mobilize thousands of phone calls to Capitol Hill and get hundreds of members of Congress on the record against the NSA's unconstitutional overreach. And we did it: Nearly half of the House of Representatives — Republicans and Democrats — voted for Rep. Amash's amendment.

We now have some clear next steps: to shore up support among those who voted for Rep. Amash's amendment, to build more champions in the House and Senate and to get ready for the next vote. We already have nearly half the House with us; with more time and more pressure, we can build even more support.

The best way to seize on this momentum is to meet with your members of Congress face to face and tell them why our right to connect in private is so important. That's why the Free Press Action Fund is organizing in-district meetings around the country this August. You can set up your own meeting or go here to see if a meeting is already scheduled for your area.

Protecting the open Internet means protecting our ability to communicate in private — so stay with us. An extra bonus: An NSA defeat weakens the power of the phone and cable companies that have helped erode our rights to connect and communicate.

Together we can push back against NSA surveillance — and win.

An important vote in the House of Representatives could rein in a major element of the National Security Agency's unconstitutional spying programs. The vote will likely happen today.

Reps. Justin Amash and John Conyers are introducing a bipartisan amendment to the defense appropriations bill (H.R. 2397) that would block funding for the NSA's collection of the phone records of millions of innocent people in the U.S.

The vote is raising the hackles of supporters of the NSA’s spying programs, including the White House itself, which released a statement on Tuesday night arguing that “this blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open or deliberative process.”

It’s an interesting statement, considering the complete shroud of secrecy in which the NSA has operated its domestic surveillance programs.

Meanwhile, more and more members of Congress are supporting the call to hold the NSA accountable. On Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden — who’s criticized the agency’s collection of call records before — gave a passionate speech in which he warned that the U.S. is in danger of becoming a surveillance state. "Americans recognize that intelligence agencies will sometimes need to conduct secret operations, but they don’t think those agencies should be relying on secret law," he said.

Sen. Wyden is right. We need to know a LOT more about the NSA’s surveillance programs, including the role phone companies like AT&T and Verizon play in supplying the NSA with millions of phone records.

The details we do have came via Edward Snowden’s leaks about the phone-tracking and PRISM programs. In the aftermath, the Obama administration confirmed — but tried to justify — the existence of these programs. But companies like AT&T and Verizon — who are prime players in the current phone surveillance and participated in phone dragnets in the early 2000s — have remained mum.

We should be suspicious of their silence. These are the same companies that for years have argued that they have the right to block our ability to communicate online.

In September, an appeals court will hear the argument in Verizon’s suit to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s Net Neutrality rules. In its legal brief for that case, Verizon included a bizarre interpretation of the First Amendment, claiming that everything we do and say online is subject to Verizon’s “editorial discretion.”Seriously.

AT&T has a long and shameful history of blocking applications and censoring content. The most recent example: blocking FaceTime on the iPhone unless users ponied up for more expensive plans with less data.

These are the same companies are that are lobbying to remove any and all regulations that require them to build out basic communications networks to the people who need them most.

That’s right: The same companies that are trying to squeeze us for more money and block our access to basic services are also cooperating with the government’s domestic spying programs.

Rep. Amash’s amendment would cut funding for one of the most nefarious NSA programs — the same one that depends on the participation of AT&T and Verizon.

The NSA should collect information only on people who are actually the subjects of investigations, and AT&T and Verizon should be in the business of letting us communicate — in private.

The vote on Rep. Amash’s amendment will take place later today. Go here to urge your representative to vote “yes.”

Original photo by Flickr user Matt Reinbold