Politics

RNC renounces NSA surveillance program

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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The Republican National Committee on Friday passed a resolution renouncing the National Security Agency’s surveillance program revealed last year by former analyst Edward Snowden.

The resolution is notable because it may signify a policy shift for GOP, which has been supportive of government surveillance programs in the past.

The resolution refers to PRISM — the secret surveillance program revealed by Snowden — as a “dragnet program” which is “the largest surveillance effort ever launched by a democratic government against its own citizens, consisting of the mass acquisition of Americans’ call details encompassing all wireless and landline subscribers of the country’s three largest phone companies.”

The resolution encourages Republican lawmakers to “call for a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying.”

“The Republican National Committee calls upon Republican lawmakers to immediately take action to halt current unconstitutional surveillance programs and provide a full public accounting of the NSA’s data collection programs,” the resolution states.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul – the libertarian-leaning Republican – praised the move on Twitter on Friday, encouraging his followers to tweet a story about the resolution to indicate their support.

The resolution passed Friday at the RNC’s annual winter meeting.

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