Rep Amash: House Intelligence Committee kept Congress in the dark about NSA spying

A few members of the House Intelligence Committee kept basic information on the NSA's surveillance program from the rest of the House of Representatives, says Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI).

On Facebook, Rep Amash posted one of the recently declassified documents on FISA surveillance, noting one passage in a 2011 letter: "We believe that making [an enclosed] document available to all members of Congress, as we did with a similar document in 2009, is an effective way to inform the legislative debate" about reauthorizing the law used for phone surveillance. But Rep Amash says that the House Intelligence Committee, which received the letter, never distributed the document. The letter suggested that Congress was aware of FISA's scope, but it was sent specifically to Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), members of the House Intelligence Committee; a separate letter was sent to the Senate's Intelligence Community. It's likely that other members of the committee were given the document, but according to Rep Amash, it never made it outside that small circle.

[Aug 12]