U.S. Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would require federal agencies to monitor domestic terrorism incidents, including those potentially related to white supremacy.

The vote to begin debate on the bill, known as the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, failed by a margin of 47 to 47, falling far short of the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome Republican opposition in the 50-50 Senate. Similar legislation passed the House in 2020 only to stall in the Senate.

Shortly before the procedural vote, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said the bill would brand police and military service members as white supremacists.

“Today we will have a bill before us ostensibly titled and ostensibly about the subject of domestic terrorism. But this bill would more accurately be called, the Democrat plan to brand and insult our police and soldiers as white supremacists and neo-Nazis. How insulting”, - he added.