Key NSA Defender Wants To End Bulk Data Collection

One of the top supporters of the National Security Agency is now calling for an end to the agency's controversial practice of collecting data on millions of US phone calls.

Under the proposal from Rep Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, the phone companies, not the NSA, would hold the phone data. NSA analysts could access the records only if they first obtain an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

His proposal would not impose any mandate on the phone companies to maintain the data -- an idea that would face fierce resistance from civil-liberties groups and the phone companies themselves. Rep Ruppersberger argued that a new data-retention mandate is unnecessary because the Federal Communications Commission already requires phone companies to maintain their records for 18 months in case there are disputes over billing.