DelBene 'Deeply Concerned' about U.S. Secretly Collecting American Phone Records

The government has been secretly collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a secret court order, according to an Associated Press report on Huffington Post. The vast roundup of U.S. phone records has been going on for years and was a key part of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program, a U.S. official said Thursday in the report.

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene issued the following statement June 6, 2013, regarding the news reports of the government secretly collecting phone records of Americans:

“I am deeply concerned by the recent news reports about a domestic surveillance program that involves the secret collection of phone records of millions of Americans. It’s troubling how broad this program is. From the information revealed in the news, it amounts to a secret and blanket form of surveillance on the American public - whether they are suspected of wrongdoing or not. This raises significant questions about what kind of surveillance and data collection the government thinks is acceptable before they begin to infringe on the public’s constitutional right to privacy. The American people deserve an explanation by the administration on why they believe such a far reaching surveillance program is necessary. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, I will be calling for greater oversight of these surveillance programs. This new disclosure is a stark reminder that as technology continues to advance, we must be vigilant to ensure that our laws are updated to protect our civil liberties and reasonably balance them with national security needs.”

The Obama administration defended the National Security Agency's need to collect telephone records of U.S. citizens, but critics said it was a huge over-reach.

What do you think about these recent reports? Should the U.S. Government stop collecting our phone records? Do you agree with DelBene that there at least needs to be greater oversight of surveillance programs? Tell us in comments.