Durbin meeting with Obama on NSA surveillance issues

WASHINGTON – Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will meet with President Barack Obama Thursday morning and other lawmakers to discuss National Security Agency surveillance policies in advance of the president announcing what changes in intelligence gathering he will make in the wake of revelations stemming from leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Durbin’s office confirmed the meeting at the White House.

On Wednesday, according to the White House, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will meet in the morning with members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and in the afternoon with leaders from the intelligence community.

Obama is considering 46 recommendations from his “Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology” he created after documents leaked by Snowden detailed massive NSA surveillance in the U.S, triggering an uproar.

At his Dec. 20 press conference, Obama hinted that he may curtail the NSA’s ability to store massive collections of phone data, one of the suggestions of the review group.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy D-Vt. will also be at the meeting, his office confirmed. Leahy will hold his latest in a series of hearings on NSA surveillance next Tuesday, when all five members of the review group are expected to testify.

The Leahy-Sensenbrenner USA FREEDOM Act ends the bulk collection of U.S. phone records.