Feinstein pushes court approvals for NSA

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she supports requiring court approval for all searches of U.S. telephone records, setting the stage for a legislative fight over how to rein in the National Security Agency.

A bill introduced last week by leaders of the House Intelligence Committee wouldn't require the government to get prior court approval when directing phone companies to search their records.

Feinstein (D., Calif.) endorsed a proposal by the Obama administration that would require that all NSA records requests go through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"A positive element that would come into this is that there would be a court approval of every query," Feinstein said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union. "I would support that."

The debate over court review could complicate efforts to pass legislation this year aimed at barring the government from stockpiling phone records through an intelligence-collection program disclosed by former federal contractor Edward Snowden.

Both the House bill and the administration have proposed requiring phone companies to hold the data instead, while giving the National Security Agency access to those records when requested.

The precise procedure for such a records search will play out in the coming months as Congress debates the bill.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said last week that requiring prior court approval for a records search is "nuts" and would create a new legal standard.

"I think it's wrong to have a better standard for a terrorist living overseas than it is a U.S. citizen who may be engaged in criminal activity in the United States," said Rogers, who said he will retire from Congress at the beginning of next year.

Both Rogers and Feinstein have supported the NSA and are proposing changes that would limit, not eliminate, these programs.

"Can a bill be passed? It is very controversial," Feinstein said. "There are a lot of different views right now."

While declaring herself open to a bill, Feinstein said she's concerned about potential privacy violations if phone data are held by a large number of companies instead of being "controlled as it is with 22 vetted people at the National Security Agency who are supervised and watched with everything they do here."