Odd Couple

An odd coalition of Democratic liberals and Republican conservatives wants to put the lid onNational Security Agency surveillance. Their strategy? Amendments to the House 2014 Defense Appropriations Bill. The bill comes up for debate today. The lawmakers hope to curtail NSA's gathering of telecommunications data on Americans. That program became public thanks to leaks by former NSA contractor employee Edward Snowden. Republican leadership has been trying to limit amendments to the spending bill. Another add-on would stop aid to Syrian rebels without congressional approval.