In a statement this morning, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa said she voted against Wednesday’s amendment to rein in the powers of the National Security Agency because it could have had “unintended consequences.”

The proposed amendment to the House defense spending bill would have barred the NSA from using a provision of the PATRIOT Act to collect phone records of people who aren’t under investigation. The measure, which failed 205-217, split Hawaii’s House members. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard voted for it.

Hanabusa said the PATRIOT Act “overreaches,” and noted that she voted against its extension in 2011. But she said “quick fixes,” like the amendment proposed by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., “would have unintended consequences for the intelligence and law enforcement communities beyond the specific problems being targeted…  

“This issue should be the subject of a stand-alone bill that provides a complete review in an open forum involving all stakeholders, including the American public. If a thorough review shows that the law is bad, we should repeal it, not simply de-fund it,” she said.

In saying “the elimination of a national security program requires an informed, transparent, and deliberative process,” she mirrored President Barack Obama, whose administration lobbied strongly against the amendment.

In a statement before the vote, Obama press secretary Jay Carney said, “we oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counterterrorism tools. This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process.”

— Kery Murakami