Congress Lops $35 Million Off Funding For NSA Supercomputer Center

Deep inside legislation authorizing 2014 Pentagon activities is a line item that reduces construction spending for a National Security Agency data mining facility near Baltimore.

The Obama Administration had requested $431 million for the third phase of development of the 28-acre server estate. A report accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act -- expected to clear Congress soon -- caps expenses at $396 million. The vague explanation states that military officials said they won’t be able to expend the full amount asked for in fiscal 2014. The budget trimming coincides with calls from Congress, a federal court and a White House review panel to sharply curtail the stockpiling of information concerning American citizens. Costs were expected to total $792 million in May, when workers broke ground on the center near the agency's headquarters at Fort Meade. Recommendations released by White House-appointed intelligence watchdogs call for legislation that "terminates the storage of bulk telephony metadata by the government.” The practice, a post-Sept 11 counterterrorism program, amasses US citizen and foreign national call logs with phone numbers, conversation lengths and other phone records that can show relationships between individuals.