Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told reporters on Monday that she had never been briefed on the National Security Agency’s PRISM program, according to the Huffington Post.
Collins, who served as the top-ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee last year and is a member of the intelligence committee this session, said she hadn’t been briefed on the sweeping internet data collection program before The Guardian reported on it last week.
Collins said she never had access to the “highly compartmentalized information,” and dismissed President Obama’s claim that members of Congress could have requested a briefing on the surveillance program. “How can you ask when you don’t know the program exists?” Collins asked, as quoted by the Huffington Post.
