NSA Debate Could Hinder Immigration Reform

NSA Debate Could Affect Immigration Reform
FILE - In this June 10, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Struggling to salvage a massive surveillance program, Obama faced congressional critics of the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' telephone records Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, as snowballing concerns made new limitations on the intelligence effort appear increasingly likely. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - In this June 10, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Struggling to salvage a massive surveillance program, Obama faced congressional critics of the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' telephone records Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, as snowballing concerns made new limitations on the intelligence effort appear increasingly likely. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

August was supposed to be the time when a major immigration bill would land on the desk of President Barack Obama.
Instead, Obama finds his fifth year in office beset by distractions, perhaps none with broader implications than the revelation of secret government surveillance programs.

That matter dominated Obama's hourlong news conference Friday. The issues that the White House had hoped to be promoting this summer? They played a diminished role, if at all.

The president set the tone, opening the session by announcing that he would work with Congress to make "appropriate reforms" to the National Security Agency surveillance programs. He also made clear that he had no intention of stopping the daily collection of Americans' phone records.

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