http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=5138Rockefeller, Feinstein Urge Intelligence Comm Chair to Hold Hearings on NSA Domestic Surveillance
Washington, DC -- In a letter yesterday to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, Pat Roberts (R-KS), all seven Democratic members of the committee requested that the Chairman hold a business meeting to vote on authorizing a committee investigation into the controversial NSA domestic surveillance program. To date, the Chairman has not committed to holding hearings on the program. Under committee rules, the Chairman must call for a business meeting within seven calendar days if at least five members of the committee make a formal request in writing.
Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV), the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, personally wrote to Chairman Roberts on January 10, 2006, calling for aggressive oversight of the program. In addition to examining the legal justification for and operational details of the program, Rockefeller urged the committee to hold hearings and examine the following: What are the legal justifications for the program; what electronic communications were intercepted; how is the information collected being minimized and used; and how is the information retained.
On December 19, 2006, a bipartisan group of Senate Intelligence Committee members, Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Carl Levin (D-MI), Dia n ne Feinstein (D-CA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) urged Chairman Roberts and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Arlen Specter (R-PA), to immediately and jointly review allegations and concerns related to the NSA program. Separately, on the same day, another member of the committee, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), also wrote to Chairman Roberts urging hearings on the program
The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, has already agreed to hold hearings next month on the legal and constitutional questions surrounding the NSA surveillance program.