President Obama is set to announce a proposed overhaul of the National Security Agency’s controversial collection of phone records as the agency has come under scrutiny for its surveillance methods, it was reported Monday.
If passed by Congress, Obama’s legislative proposal would take the systematic collection of US phone records out of the hands of the NSA and instead require phone companies to keep the data for an undisclosed amount of time, The New York Times reported.
If the NSA would like to acquire the records from the companies, they would need permission from a judge under a court order, the Times reported.
With the permission, the government would issue directives requiring AT&T, Verizon and other US carriers to search their databases for information.
The measure will be unveiled Wednesday by Reps. Mike Rogers of Michigan, the House intelligence committee’s Republican chair, and C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat.
The bulk collection of US phone records was revealed last year in secret records leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who now is living as a fugitive in Russia and is seeking amnesty abroad.
The revelations about the NSA’s snooping set off a global debate over tradeoffs between privacy and security.
Obama in January ordered his administration to develop alternatives to having the NSA collect and hold phone records, which include numbers dialed and call durations but not the content of conversations.
With Post Wire Services