Dear "Concerned Citizen":

Thank you for contacting me regarding the recent reports of domestic surveillance activity by the U.S. Government. The challenge of balancing America’s national security needs with personal privacy rights has been made more complicated in recent years as technology has become more advanced and more intimately involved in American life. At the same time, our military and law enforcement agencies must have the tools they need to protect the country.

The Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978 and created a special court, which operates in closed session, to consider government wiretap requests in national security cases. Two Supreme Court cases had previously established that domestic wiretaps for national security purposes do not inherently violate the fourth amendment's protection against unreasonable searches, but do require judicial approval. Congress passed FISA to bring the law into conformity with those decisions. I am concerned about recent reports of potentially unlawful domestic surveillance activity without approval by the FISA court. There will be congressional hearings on this topic this year, and I will be looking very carefully at the circumstances of this program.

Please know that I take the security and privacy needs of the American people extremely seriously. I will keep your concerns in mind as this issue comes before the Senate.

"apparently there is enough outrage from people to warrant the drafting of this canned response"
* note: the picture depicts Nelson Chang, not Bill Nelson