ACLU Comment in Response to Trump Request to Reauthorize Collection of Americans’ Call Records

NEW YORK – In a letter to Congress today, the Trump administration urged lawmakers to permanently extend provisions in the USA Freedom Act, which the National Security Agency has used to collect Americans’ domestic call records on a vast scale. The Trump administration is asking Congress to reauthorize the law, which is set to expire in December, despite mounting privacy concerns over this NSA spying program and calls for broader surveillance reforms.

Patrick Toomey, senior staff attorney for the ACLU National Security Project, said:

“We need genuine surveillance reform that protects the privacy of Americans, not a permanent extension of spying laws that have proven unnecessary and ineffective. As the government’s appetite for our data grows, Congress should be working to enact limits on these surveillance powers, especially those that could be used to unfairly target vulnerable minority communities and journalists.”