WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2019) Lawmakers in both houses of US Congress introduced legislation to end the National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance of phone records, Senator Ron Wyden's office said in a statement.
"The Ending Mass Collection of Americans' Phone Records Act [was introduced] in the Senate and House to permanently end the National Security Agency's scandal-plagued program to surveil Americans' phone records," the release said on Thursday.
The NSA phone records program was created in conditions of secrecy, justified with lying statements and did not succeed in preventing a single terrorist attack, the release said.
"Even after Congress acted in 2015, the program collected over half a billion phone records in a single year. It's time, finally, to put a stake in the heart of this unnecessary government surveillance program and start to restore some of Americans' liberties," Wyden said in the release.
The bill had been introduced as the opening move in an effort to introduce widespread reforms to the controversial Section 215 of the 2001 Patriot Act, Wyden added.
US Senator Rand Paul and Representatives Justin Amash and Zoe Lofgren joined Wyden in introducing the bill.
