with congress men jim himes of connecticut. representative randy forbes. will speak about the espionage act. >> great harm has already been done by opening this up. and the consequence, i believe, is our security is jeopardized. there is no doubt in my mind that we will lose capabilities as a result of this, and that not only the united states, but those allies that we have helped will no longer be as safe as they were two weeks ago. ♪ that was general keith alexander of the nsa testifying before the senate appropriations committee yesterday. he meets in closed session with house intelligence committee members today. we want to get your reaction to what he had to say about phone and theird the nsa halting terror threats. (202) 585-area code, 3881 for republicans, (202) 585- 3880 four democrats, (202) 585- 3882 for independents. you can also make a twitter comments, @cspanwj is our twitter handle. you can also go to facebook.com /c-span. you can send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org. here is a story in the "new york times" this morning. it cited article,

congressman jim himes, democratic from connecticut. he is a member of the house intelligence committee. congressman himes, it looks to me if you listen to what the president said to charlie rose last night and look at the testimony today, the president could not have been more clear. he denied that the united states government has the legal capability or intends to do if it did have the legal capability to try to find out what we're saying on the telephone or our e-mail. it has to be gone through, if you do get a target opportunity, you have to go through the courts and get a warrant. that would be the fbi, not the nsa. so it sounds to me like there's a lot of room between the scandal here as it's been described and the reality. >> yeah, well, part of the problem, chris, is there is a ton of misinformation out there. people believe their phone calls are being listened to. the president is right. by all accounts from everybody we've talked to, that is not true. that doesn't mean we shouldn't still ask a lot of questions about you know,

host: representative jim himes is our guest. democrat from connecticut, member of the house intelligence committee. we are going to put the numbers up on the screen if you'd like to participate in our conversation this morning. 202-585-3881. 58 a-3882 for all others. can you send a tweet at c-span, wj is the twitter handle. mr. himes, approximately 00,000 contractors outside government employees have security clearances. has this been a matter of discussion in congress? guest: it has to a quiet extent. people talk about the growth of government. if you look over the last 10, 15 years government collectively has grown largely because we have built up a massive national security apparatus. i'm not saying that's bad. we live in a very dangerous world. when people talk about out-of-control government growth, they ought to know where it's concentrated. it raises issues. it raises the issues we have been discussing about whether the agencies are not overstepping their bounds. i happen to believe we have gone in that direction. it also

about 45 met, we will discuss in essay surveillance -- nsa surveillance program with congress men jim himes of connecticut. representative randy forbes. will speak about the espionage act. >> great harm has already been done by opening this up. and the consequence, i believe, is our security is jeopardized. there is no doubt in my mind that we will lose capabilities as a result of this, and that not only the united states, but those allies that we have helped will no longer be as safe as they were two weeks ago. ♪ that was general keith alexander of the nsa testifying before the senate appropriations committee yesterday. he meets in closed session with house intelligence committee members today. we want to get your reaction to what he had to say about phone records and the nsa