CIA has shielded secret data collection program from oversight, 2 U.S. senators say

Two U.S. senators claim the Central Intelligence Agency is running a secret program aimed at scooping up massive amounts of data and has been shielding it from congressional oversight, they said in a letter released on Friday.

In the letter dated April 13, 2021, U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden, of Oregon, and Martin Heinrich, of New Mexico, warned top U.S. intelligence officials that an unspecified “bulk collection” program was operating “entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection.”

The Democrats said that even lawmakers on the U.S. Senate’s Intelligence Committee were unaware of the nature