House Judiciary Committee passes resolution demanding NSA telecom requests

Filed by John Byrne

The House Judiciary Committee unexpectedly passed a Democratic resolution Wednesday morning calling on the Justice Department to turn over all requests made by the National Security Agency and other federal agencies to telephone service providers to obtain information without a warrant.

The measure was passed by a voice vote Wednesday morning with support of Republican Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). It was introduced by Florida Democrat Robert Wexler.

Sensenbrenner told the Committee he would bring the measure to the full House floor for a vote if the Justice Department did not comply with his earlier requests for information about the program.

The resolution is not a subpoena. It would have to pass the full House before it had the effect of law.

Ranking Judiciary Democrat John Conyers (D-MI) applauded the move.

"I am pleased that the House Judiciary Committee is exercising its oversight authority and demanding real answers of the Administration," Conyers said in a statement. "We do not know how trillions of phone call records were obtained, nor how they are being used. And there is no guarantee that this private information will ever be destroyed."

The resolution comes on the heels of last month’s revelation by USA Today that the National Security Agency was amassing the phone records of Americans in possible violation of federal law. Officials speaking under the condition of anonymity estimated the collected phone records number in the trillions.