Sen. Mike Lee told POLITICO that he 'hadn’t been briefed on this particular issue.' Lawmakers: Surveillance news to us

Several lawmakers said they had not been briefed on the Obama administration’s classified programs to monitor cellphone and Internet traffic.

That’s in direct contradiction to President Barack Obama’s assertion. The president said on Friday that “every member of Congress” has been briefed on the programs led by the National Security Administration.


Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a telephone interview late Friday that he learned about the two programs after requesting a briefing under “classified circumstances” following urging by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

( PHOTOS: Pols, pundits weigh in on NSA report)

Durbin said congressional leadership and intelligence committees had access to information about the programs, but that the “average member” of Congress likely wouldn’t have been aware of the breadth of the telephone and Internet surveillance.

“They don’t receive this kind of briefing,” Durbin said of the congressional rank-and-file.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who has railed against government intrusion on the Senate floor, told POLITICO that he “hadn’t been briefed on this particular issue,” referring to the NSA collection of phone records. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) also said he learned of phone monitoring through news reports, although he said it “wasn’t a surprise.”

( Also on POLITICO: Obama: 'Right balance' on surveillance)

“Not quite!” tweeted Rep. Billy Long (R-La.) in response to a tweet by ABC’s Rick Klein that said “Obama says ‘every member of Congress’ has been briefed on phone program #NSA; suggests only intel comm. knew of PRISM.”

The House and Senate intelligence committees, which oversee agencies like the NSA and Central Intelligence Agency, are routinely briefed on classified intelligence operations.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also get briefed, along with intelligence committee chairs and ranking members. Rank-and-file members of Congress, however, are only periodically briefed on specific incidents — there have been briefings recently on Syria and the Boston bombings.

On Friday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that all lawmakers had access to classified information.

“In December of 2009 and in February of 2011, the Department of Justice and the intelligence community provided a document to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to be made available to all members of the House and Senate, describing the classified uses of Section 215 in detail,” Earnest said.

Section 215 is the part of the Patriot Act governs some of the surveillance at issue.

Such a briefing will happen next week.

House lawmakers will gather to hear about NSA’s surveillance program, just a few days after it was revealed publicly that the government gathers data on Internet and cell phone usage.

( WATCH: NSA reactions in under 60 seconds)

The briefing will occur next Tuesday at 5 p.m., according to an e-mail Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) sent out to member and aides. The topic of the briefing is “FISA Issues.”

Some lawmakers have already been briefed. Top FBI and Justice Department brass briefed 27 senators Thursday.

Senate Intelligence Committee member Mark Warner (D-Va.) declined to comment directly on the new Internet monitoring revelations on Friday. Warner did say the briefing, which he attended, covered a “a lot” of topics, an indication it may have stretched beyond the Verizon phone record keeping and into Internet surveillance.

The Washington Post reported Thursday night on the PRISM program in which the government monitors internet usage shortly after the classified Senate briefing took place. The United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper reported that the government was culling massive amounts of data from Verizon, one of the nation’s largest cell phone providers.

The vast majority who attended the Senate briefing declined comment on it , but Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said he was “glad” the administration was offering “a little clarification.”

The Senate Select Intelligence Committee has also routinely made available classified documents regarding the surveillance open to all senators, although it was up to individual members to view the documents. The briefings were on periodic reinstatement of “roving authority for electronic surveillance” as well as “the acquisition of business records,” the section of the PATRIOT Act that deals with gathering phone records.

The issue will catch legislative steam, as well. Next week the House considers the National Defense Authorization Act, which could become complicated by these surveillance issues. Even more difficult will be the intelligence reauthorization, which will also be on the floor this summer.

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