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U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, talks during a town hall meeting Wednesday in Lowell Township.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — U.S. Rep. Justin Amash on Wednesday accused Republican leaders of hiding crucial information on controversial federal phone records spying from members of Congress ahead of key votes.

Amash, R-Cascade Township, made the charge during his first town hall meeting of the August congressional recess in Lowell Township.

Hundreds packed the event, which became heated at times during discussion on issues like the Affordable Care Act and immigration reform.

Phone metadata trawling has become Amash's main focus of late. Leaker Edward Snowden earlier this summer disclosed information about the National Security Agency's collecting the phone records of every American in the quest to root out terrorist suspects.

Last month, legislation he introduced to defund some NSA spying programs was narrowly defeated in a closely watched vote.

During his remarks Wednesday, Amash alleged that a recently declassified memo from 2011 laid out some general details about the snooping.

The document, he said, had at the time been made available to the House Intelligence Committee, but not rank-and-file congressmen and women.

If it had been disclosed earlier, Amash argued, more members of Congress likely would have been hesitant to vote to renew parts of the Patriot Act and other laws allowing for phone records spying.

"We were kept in the dark," said Amash, whose allegations were first reported this week by the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper.

That publication has harped on the claim, and said it has been unsuccessful in reaching House Intelligence Committee aides for a response. It noted in a Wednesday update that a spokesperson told The Hill newspaper that classified briefings were held prior to the votes.

"The Committee has provided many opportunities for members to have their questions answered by both the [House Intelligence Committee] and the NSA," the aide told The Hill.

Amash has called such claims dubious. During his town hall, he claimed that questions not tailored specifically to get at the minutiae of a supposed secret program get denied.

"We would go to congressional briefings, and they'll talk about the Patriot Act, for example, in pretty plain terms," Amash said. "But they won't tell you about the uses of the Patriot Act."

Phone metadata trawling by the National Security Administration played a somewhat surprisingly small role in the event, with only a handful of questions from Amash's constituents concerning the collection of Americans' phone records.

Despite the fact that his fight against the practice has been widely publicized, NSA spying did not quite evoke the outrage and protestations of those who packed his town hall like, say, Obamacare or immigration reform.

Amash did have a keen supporter, though, in Erin Nysse, a Grand Rapids resident who pressed Amash on his thoughts about whether the judicial branch of the government has been too complicit in allowing the spying.

Nysse said she's not a long-time supporter of Amash, but attended the event after watching C-SPAN footage of him debating his doomed amendment on the House floor in July.

"Our tax dollars should not be funding spying on us, domestically," Nysse told MLive and The Grand Rapids Press after the meeting. "It's hindering the privacy of Americans. … Taxpayer funding for that kind of domestic spying is absolutely criminal."

Proponents of the NSA spying contend the programs are critical in the fight against terrorist activities. Amash never called out fellow Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, but the pair sparred during debate on Amash's amendment.

There were no vocal detractors of Amash's stance at the town hall. Indeed, many broke into applause when he berated the government for what he said was the trampling of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

By and large, though, the meeting served as a forum where many constituents aired impassioned grievances and fears about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also called "Obamacare," and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of certain groups.

Zane McMillin is a reporter for The Grand Rapids Press and MLive.com. Email him, and follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.