Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters on Thursday that the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' phone records has thwarted a terrorist plot inside the U.S. "within the last few years."
"Within the last few years, this program was used to stop a terrorist attack in the United States," Rogers said, according to Politico.
"We know that. It's important. It fills in a little seam that we have, and it's used to make sure that there's not an international nexus to any terrorism event that they may believe is ongoing in the United States."
Rogers called the terrorist plot "significant."
On Wednesday, The Guardian reported on a court order that compelled Verizon to give data on millions of Americans' phone records to the NSA. It has promptly been defended by both Republicans and Democrats as a process that has been ongoing for the last seven years.
Aboard Air Force One for President Barack Obama's trip to North Carolina on Thursday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest called the program a "critical tool" in national security operations.