Electronic surveillance

Lawmakers Show Willingness to End NSA Phone-Surveillance Program

Democratic lawmakers joined by some Republicans challenged the Trump administration’s push to renew a domestic phone-surveillance program, expressing skepticism that the tool serves a legitimate purpose and indicating bipartisan support for letting it lapse later this year.

The National Security Agency sought to defend the once-secret program during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, even as the spy agency acknowledged the program was currently suspended because of repeated compliance issues and was unable to point to any examples of it aiding terrorism investigations.

The Trump administration said last month that it wanted Congress to permanently renew the NSA program—which collects the metadata of U.S. calls but not their content—before it expires in December along with several other surveillance tools, staking out a strident position even as some current and former intelligence officials have said the program’s burdens outweigh its security benefits.