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WASHINGTON— This week brings increasedpressure on U.S. lawmakers to reform orreauthorize the National Security Agency’sability to gather domestic telephone records foranti-terrorist purposes, because the programexpires at the end of this month.

A federal appeals court ruled so-called “bulk metadata” collection illegal but did notorder a stop to the program launched in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001,terrorist attacks on the United States.

Even before last week’s court decision, some in Congress were urging reform of domesticspying.

“I believe we have to protect our national security, but we also have to protect our civilliberties that make us unique as a country,” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said.

NSA leaks

Exposed by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the program caused a firestormwhen Americans learned of vast telecommunications monitoring by a shadowy U.S. agency.

Last year, President Barack Obama pledged what he called “a new approach.”

“The United States is not spying on ordinary people who do not threaten our nationalsecurity, and we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures,"Obama said then.

Moments after the court ruling last week, several Republicans rushed to defend the program,which reportedly collects and stores phone records but not the content of calls made.

“The NSA can find connections from known terrorists overseas and connect them to potentialterrorists here in the United States. Critics of the program either want to do away with it ormake it much more difficult to use," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

Ending the program is unthinkable, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said. “We are going to keep America safe. We are not going to revert back to where we aresusceptible to another 9-11," he said.六级考试作文

Others see a threat to privacy.

“I say the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their damn business," RepublicanSenator Rand Paul.

Commitment to transparency

That the debate is unfolding at all shows America’s commitment to transparency, PresidentObama said.

“No one expects China to have an open debate about their surveillance programs, or Russia totake the privacy concerns of citizens into account. But let us remember: we are held to adifferent standard precisely because we have been at the forefront of defending personalprivacy and human dignity," he said.

Many expect the Supreme Court will ultimately decide the constitutionality of bulk datacollection.

In the meantime, Congress could extend the NSA program or reform it. Lawmakers of bothparties say the stakes for national security, and civil liberties, are high.