Udall demands ‘real reform’ of NSA

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is calling for “real reform” of the National Security Agency on the heels of a new report that recommends changes to the agency’s surveillance program.

{mosads}Last week, a panel of national security and privacy experts, selected by President Obama, issued a report that included 46 recommendations, suggesting that phone companies hold data on all U.S. citizens’ phone calls rather than the NSA.

“The NSA overreached,” Udall, a senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“It’s time to have real reform, not a veneer of reform. You know why? Because we have got to rebuild the American people’s trust in our intelligence committee so we can be safe, so we can meet the threats that are all over the world.”

Udall said phone record metadata collection can continue, but that the NSA should have to go to court and get an order for access to them.

“And by the way, I think those phone records ought to be held by a third party,” Udall added.

Udall hopes that one year from now the federal government will not be collecting phone records.