White House unveils plan to end bulk collection of phone data by NSA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Thursday provided details about its plan to stop its bulk collection of millions of records of phone calls made in the United States, and new procedures required to get permission from a judge before asking phone companies for data.

The plan, which needs approval from Congress, would allow the government to ask for phone data without a court order in the case of a national security emergency, and would compel phone companies to provide data quickly and in a useable format, a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Susan Heavey)