What Members of Congress Are Saying About NSA Spying

The following is a collection of recent statements by Members of Congress in the wake of revelations concerning NSA surveillance. This page will be updated as new statements are published.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) Press Release, June 6th

I believe that when law-abiding Americans call their friends, who they call, when they call, and where they call from is private information.  Collecting this data about every single phone call that every American makes every day would be a massive invasion of Americans’ privacy.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) CNN’s State of the Union, June 9th

It’s unclear to me that we’ve developed any intelligence through the metadata program that’s led to the disruption of plots that we couldn’t have developed through other data and other intelligence.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) Letter to the President, June 6th

On its face, if true, the collection of this massive amount of detailed information about the communications American citizens raises extremely serious concerns about why such a broad collection is necessary and how this information is used.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Public Statement, June 6th

The United States government should not be accumulating phone records on tens of millions of innocent Americans… That is not what freedom is about. That is not what our constitution is about.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) Press Release, June 6th

The National Security Agency’s seizure and surveillance of virtually all of Verizon’s phone customers is an astounding assault on the Constitution.

18 Republican and Democratic Representatives, Letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander, June 7th

This latest revelation should serve as as wake-up call to Americans that Congress has passed, and continues to pass, dangerous and unconstitutional legislation without regard for our Constitution.

Representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Bobby Scott (D-VA) Joint Statement, June 6th

We cannot defeat terrorism by compromising our commitment to our civil rights and liberties.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, June 6th

As the author of the Patriot Act, I am extremely disturbed by what appears to be an overbroad interpretation of the Act.  

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-NC), Press Release, June 7th

We must have a thorough and public debate on how our government can balance the need for national security while protecting the basic liberties of its citizens. Americans have a right to know the power that they are granting their government