The issue focused on the lack of transparency in the government's surveillance programs, and the fact that the bulk collection of communications data from American citizens was not disclosed to the Senate or Congress.

The Senate committee report also noted that, in fact, no data was collected under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. That provision authorizes the government to collect data in bulk. Section 215, which is the most controversial of the programs, collects records about the location data of Americans, including the number of times the data was