Gen. Michael Hayden: Congress Must Act to Keep Phone Data Program

Former NSA and CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden said the NSA will be forced to "fold its tent" on its phone data collection program without re-authorization by Congress of key sections of the Patriot Act due to expire later this year.

"Our government has indicated that if Congress doesn't act, the NSA is going to fold its tent on this program because it will lose the authorization it currently has to do what it is currently doing without replacing it with any new approach," Hayden told The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV Monday.

He said the "legal technicalities" to give the National Security Agency "a window… would be very much contested."

"What we need is Congress to act."

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Hayden agreed the alternative to no action would be both dangerous and unacceptable.

The White House has also urged re-authorization of the controversial data collection program — which was exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The program, due to expire in June, secretly tracks when telephone calls are made, to whom and for how long, and was introduced after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Civil liberty groups oppose keeping it on the books.

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