NSA to End Phone Program Despite Calls for Extension

The National Security Agency will follow through on a plan to cease collecting bulk telephone records on Sunday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Friday, despite the urging of some Republicans that the program be extended in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.

Congress voted June 2 to ban the NSA from collecting telephone records in bulk, ending a practice adopted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The law that ended the program, the USA Freedom Act, gave the NSA 180 days to transition into a new system, and that peri