you know, honestly, we won'tç solve the problem until congress steps up. >> ifill: josh blackman istent? >> so i think the way we have to néÑ until recently the president said he did not have authority to do this. now he says his position is unassailable. what is the legal basis for this? what does it mean? what are the implications? if we can do this, what else can he do? we need to have this debate before the action happens, not afterwards. >> ifill: is part of your concern the people who will now be given this temporary protection will also be on a path to citizenship? >> well, i think the bigger issue is what this means for future presidents. if i can indulge for a second, imagine a president ted cruz decides not to enforce environmental laws or president rand paul decideses not toç enforce an income tax. i want to see what the legal implications are. where are the limits of the ability of the president to not enforce the laws? i want to see the memorandum making that point. >> i understand a lot of republicans are against the way the president is doing this, but let's discuss

for better or worse, we have checks and balances for a reason. >> ifill: josh blackman, and frank sharry a vote on the senate floor last night, lawmakers blocked a bill that would have drastically changed the way the national security agency currently monitors american citizens. >> on this vote, the yeas are 58, the nays are 42. >> ifill: with that, the u.s.a. freedom act effectively died on the senate floor last night, failing to garner the 60 votes needed to move to full debate. the legislation would have ended the national security agency's bulk collection of domestic phone call records, so-called metadata. >> our bill protects americans.ç >> ifill: the lead sponsor, vermont senator patrick leahy, spoke for most of his fellow democrats. >> the u.s.a. freedom act provides for commonsense reforms to government surveillance, and promotes greater accountability and transparency of the government's surveillance programs.ç >> ifill: former n.s.a. employee edward snowden revealed the secret bulk collection program last year. it was authorized under section 215 of the patriot act. this new b

blackman's through an identification number. after several phone calls, and hours of wrangling, they took me behind black tarps to show the head and e.t. plus. joshs there. a guardrail manufacturer who had sued the company that makes the e.t. plus trinity industries. >> that head is responsible for the death of that boy. there's no question. >> reporter: here's the way the e.t. plus is supposed to work. the force of the car pushes the end terminal down the guardrail and flattens the w into a smooth ribbon of steel that comes out the side. that process slows the car. in this case, you can see the guardrail bulge out of the channel, and how the guard railing folded right at the end terminal. >> they lock up, and as you can see, with the gouge right there, it buckled over, and ripped off. >> reporter: the guardrail flipped onto the highway and the sebring continued past. smacked into a sign pole and stopped upside down. after repeated incidents like this one, and lawsuits filed against the company, 39 states have now banned the e.t. plus. not california. >> we want to have as much information, as much solid data as possible before we make a decision