Amendments adopted in 2014, for example, give authorities the right to cut internet and mobile phone access without judicial review.
In a particular blow to Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, and Richard Burr, the intelligence committee chairman, the Senate rejected a series of amendments that were designed to weaken the surveillance and transparency reforms contained in the USA Freedom Act.
A spokesman for McConnell said the plan in the Senate is still to bring up that bill, despite bipartisan opposition to it, and open the floor to amendments.
Congressional staff involved in refining the USA Freedom Act since it last passed the House by 303 votes to 121 in May 2014 believe various revisions since have made the bill palatable enough to security hawks in the Senate, though expect possible amendments in the days ahead.
The first sheet is executive mansion stationary and the words written on it are written in pen, with some pencilled in amendments at the bottom.
But on Tuesday the government won votes on two amendments and tied on another, meaning the bulk of the original proposal will pass into law.
"When you see these amendments that give more rights to perpetrators than Native women, you start to wonder where the balance is," she said.
McConnell also seeks to pass other amendments to the USA Freedom Act, which ends the NSA's bulk collection of US phone data, a move by the majority leader which would delay the end of the phone-data dragnet for a year.
"I think the fact that so many felt they needed to vote for the amendments shows that many realise they are being perceived as anti-science and anti-reality and that is not playing that well back home," said Alden Meyer, director of strategy for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
There are now two amendments on the table.
Those amendments were subsequently introduced and the judges had buttressed them with new practice directions and new precedents.
