Sen. Dianne Feinstein speaks to the media after Thursday's briefing. Senators praise NSA briefings

The Obama administration’s barnstorming of Capitol Hill is making at least some progress with critics of NSA surveillance.

Senators emerged Thursday afternoon from their third classified briefing in a week’s time with positive things to say about the White House’s outreach in the wake of revelations over data-mining of phone records and Internet use. Among the attendees were National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.


“We were given some very specific and helpful information about how these programs have helped keep Americans safe,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) “I can’t imagine any U.S. senator sitting through a briefing like we just had and not feeling thankful for the efforts that NSA and others put forth.”

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Still, some of the harshest critics of the NSA’s programs declined comment following the briefing, including Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Paul held a news conference just minutes before the briefing in which he indicated he might help sue the government over surveillance; Wyden and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) expressed public skepticism with Alexander’s assertions that phone records may have helped avert “dozens” of terrorist events.

And several senators declined to discuss the tone of the meeting, even when granted anonymity. But even with critical public statements being lobbed at Alexander and Clapper about the surveillance programs through media outlets, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) described the tone as “constructive.”

“I know more than I did a couple weeks ago,” said Heinrich, who in the wake of the media reports said he was unaware of the surveillance programs. Heinrich said the further declassification of documents for the American public’s consumption was discussed.

“We have to have a transparent enough conversation publicly about that for the American people to have the confidence,” Heinrich said. “I’m not sure we’re there yet.”

Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) questioned Alexander pointedly on Wednesday during an open hearing on cybersecurity that devolved into round-upon-round of NSA questions. Could a digital dragnet be put on Omaha, Neb., Johanns wondered?

After the intelligence briefing Thursday, Johanns said he still had questions but praised the continued explanations to senators behind closed doors.

“I can’t say that every question was answered, but it was helpful, Johanns told POLITICO. “I appreciate the administration trying to do this.”

The Obama administration has an impossible task: Convince Congress that they are being forthright with the public about government data-mining programs while not giving away the store to America’s enemies.

Wyden said on Thursday before the hearing that even in private conversations behind closed doors with intelligence officials he’s been largely unimpressed with the answers he receives. Wyden has also asked in public whether the NSA collects data on millions of Americans. The answer was no, not “wittingly,”’ Clapper said. The next steps, Wyden said, are public hearings and “straight answers.”

The White House did not comment for this story to put in context whether or not the outreach on the Hill has been unprecedented. In addition to three classified Senate briefings and Alexander’s open hearing, the House Intelligence Committee and the full House have also received briefings.

Still, there’s a sense that more should have been done sooner so that senators could have been been prepared for the storm of questions that followed media reports on the NSA programs. Briefings were made available on the telephone records programs to senators in the past, but it was up to individual members to attend them.

“It would have been helpful a long time ago. Their argument now is this has been vetted by Congress and the courts. And to some degree that’s true but in very limited ways,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a member of Republican leadership. “Their attempts now are kind of after the fact. Very reactionary.”

“They have not done a particularly good job in explaining it to the American people,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Those who have long known about the extent of the programs, including Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), have been far less troubled about the lack of public outreach than some rank-and-file members.

Former Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said he was “privy” to all the stories before they were printed.

“You see the headlines and people think: ‘My gosh they’re searching everything and listening to my phone. No such thing. They’re not doing that,” Shelby said.

Shelby did not appear to attend the classified hearing on Thursday, although Feinstein said 47 senators did. Among Intelligence Committee members, there might even be a little bit of NSA briefing fatigue.

“I’m on Intel, so they’re repeating stuff I already know,” said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who left Thursday’s meeting after just a few minutes — and before some of his colleagues had even arrived.

Tim Mak contributed to this report.