The issue focused on the District of Columbia being unable to require the National Security Agency to make data it collected of specific telephone numbers available in legal form to the public. The administration said it has created a system that will make that information available for research and analysis, but the people who have criticized the move said it is too limited and incomplete.


The situation underscores how little sense Congress had in making it illegal for the government to gain access to a lot of information collected on Americans through a surveillance program that also