Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., is a proud supporter of the National Security Agency. And she doesn’t think much of exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden.

She thinks so little of him, she’s apparently not aware of his name.

Mikulski assigned the former spy a new identity during an open-to-the-public Senate intelligence committee hearing Thursday focused on surveillance reform legislation.

“Now that we’ve seen the revelations of Eric Schnowden, and we’re not here to debate whether he was a traitor or a whistleblower, but I will say this, I am deeply disturbed,” the five-term senator told colleagues. “I do not want to see the continual demonization of the National Security Agency, whether it’s in the media or in other forums.”

It wasn’t a one-time mistake.

“Now, Eric Schnowden has his time, he gets an hour on TV, he gets a hoorah from Brian Williams, but I think we ought to say to the national security staff that while we look at the constitutionality and other issues here that we do not demonize them,” she added.

The NSA is headquartered in Fort Meade, Md.

Editorial Cartoons on the NSA View All 107 Images

“I represent the National Security Agency,” Mikulski reminded colleagues. “Over 15,000 people get up every day and wonder how to protect America.”

Mikulski and colleagues were discussing the USA Freedom Act, which would end the NSA’s bulk collection of phone metadata and institute other reforms. The bill passed the House May 22, but lost the support of many pro-civil liberties members after it was weakened at the behest of the Obama administration and surveillance hawks.

Several members of the Senate intelligence committee, including Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Dan Coats, R-Ind., said surveillance programs should not be altered to assuage public outrage.

Thursday marked the anniversary of Snowden's first disclosure: that the NSA collected the phone records of all Americans without public knowledge for years.

Mikulski's support for the NSA is long-standing.

In February Mikulski scolded eight Republicans in the Maryland House of Delegates who introduced legislation to deny the NSA “material support, participation or assistance in any form” from the state, its political subdivisions and companies with state contracts.

“I’m shocked that the Republicans would go ahead and do that to the National Security Agency,” she told U.S. News in reaction to the bill, which later died in committee. “When I think back to Ronald Reagan and how strong he was on defense and the way he led the end of the Cold War, I am shocked that the Republicans would want to negatively impact the National Security Agency."