King to Obama on panel's NSA report: "Ignore it"

Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) has his own recommendation for President Obama as he considers a panel's report on proposed National Security Agency surveillance limits: "Ignore it."

King, eyeing a 2016 White House run on a hawkish foreign policy platform, is among the most outspoken backers of NSA surveillance programs leaked this year by fugitive ex-contractor Edward Snowden.

After the report itself was leaked to to major papers including the New York Times and the The Washington Post, the White House released it Wednesday.

A five-member panel convened by Obama offers 46 nonbinding recommendations, among them removal of bulk phone data storage from the federal government and appointment of a public advocate to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves some of the programs.

"To me this is just a surrender to political correctness," King said. "I didn't' t think the NSA needed any reforms, and the tone is one of apology."

King voiced particular surprise at the report's recommendation to apply U.S.. Privacy Act protections to non-U.S. citizens.

The plan would put "more restrictions on our intelligence community than any in the world, and as far as I'm concerned there were no abuses at all," King said.

Obama is expected to announce policy changes next month.