WASHINGTON — Reports that the National Security Agency is collecting the phone logs of millions of U.S. Verizon customers may have hit with a boom Wednesday night, prompting concerns of government overreach and infringements on civil liberties — but don’t expect Congress to do anything about it.<\/p>\n
On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers expressed immediate alarm to news that a FISA court had granted a request for an “ongoing, daily basis” collection of call data, as reported by The Guardian. But those with the authority to take action moved first to vigorously defend the program, calling it routine.<\/p>\n
“I read intelligence carefully, and I know that people are trying to get to us,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “This is to ferret this out before it happens. It’s called protecting America.”<\/p>\n
She handed out letters she and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the committee, wrote to their colleagues in 2010 and 2011 explaining how the program worked, and urging that they support it. Congress did so.<\/p>\n
“This is nothing particularly new,” Chambliss said. “Every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this, and to my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information.”<\/p>\n