Rep. Rick Larsen, WA-02, issued the following statement today following two votes on the National Security Agency’s data collection activities. Larsen voted for one amendment to prevent government collection and storage of Americans’ e-mails and voted against another that would have outright ended the agency’s ability to collect phone record data.

“The administration must end its broad dragnet collection and storage of Americans’ data,” Larsen said. “The National Security Agency is abusing its power by collecting so much data on Americans outside of active investigations. Congress needs to end that abuse.

“I understand the desire to gut these programs and start over again. However, I could not support the Amash-Conyers amendment because it took a meat cleaver approach when the issue deserves a fully informed debate by Congress.

“I introduced the Government Surveillance Transparency Act so the American public can finally know what data the United States government is collecting from them. I also support the Ending Secret Law Act, which would open up the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s opinions so Constitutional decisions are no longer locked away from public view.

Larsen’s Government Surveillance Transparency Act, which he introduced last week, would allow companies to publicly disclose the volume and type of information they are ordered to turn over to federal intelligence agencies. More information on the bill is available here.