Clapper Says He’s Open To Surveillance Limits

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's top intelligence officer is telling lawmakers he's willing to consider limits on surveillance by the National Security Agency.

James Clapper is Director of National Intelligence. He says he would consider limits to ease concerns raised by disclosures of NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone and email data.

Clapper says he would consider restricting how far NSA analysts can reach into the U.S. phone records database when tracking connections to a terror suspect.

In prepared remarks, Clapper says he also would consider limiting how long such data is kept, and releasing statistics on how that data is being used.

Clapper says he's also open to the idea of having an independent representative argue against the government before a secret federal court that reviews all government surveillance requests.