The Washington Post is reporting that the White House agreed to give more detailed briefings to Congress on the National Security Agency’s “terrorist surveillance program” after members of Congress, among them several Republicans, called for a full Congressional inquiry.

In a closed door briefing with the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday afternoon, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Director of National Intelligence Gen. Michael Hayden began giving Congress more detailed information about the processes used in the program, the Post reported.

Gonzales and Hayden will brief the Senate Intelligence Committee in closed session Thursday.

The briefing occurred one day after Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.), who chairs the House intelligence subcommittee that oversees the NSA, told the New York Times she wants a full congressional inquiry into the surveillance program.

[Wednesday], Wilson stepped away from the hearing to tell reporters: “This is a very positive development. Serious questioning, sharing of information and review of this program began this afternoon. . . . The checks and balances in our system of government are very important, and it’s those checks and balances that are going on and being executed now.”

. . . Several GOP lawmakers have defended the NSA program, saying the administration has given Congress all the information it needs. But some prominent Republicans have joined Specter and Wilson in questioning whether the program complies with the FISA law, and in calling for more information without divulging important secrets.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said in an interview that the “balance must be preserved between the executive branch and the legislature. And I think this is a clear example of where the balance has gotten skewed. . . . The administration cannot unilaterally assume that they have the answers to get around or go over a law.” Hagel sits on the Senate intelligence committee, which is to be privately briefed today by Gonzales and Hayden.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said in an interview, “I think there’s a decent shot at crafting legislation to make the FISA court a more workable option” for setting guidelines for the surveillance program. He said he wants “a separate set of eyes involved in this to provide safeguards.” — Washington Post

This was bound to happen. Congress may have been derelict in its duty in the past, as some have claimed, but they seem to be picking up the ball quite well now.

For the record, as it seems I have to say this every time I write about this program, I absolutely believe that the U.S. needs to collect intelligence on terrorists who threaten all of us, and it needs to be able to stay ahead of them when they employ counterintelligence measures to try to thwart U.S. eavesdropping. At the same time, any such program needs effective oversight to ensure that abuses of the kind that we saw under Hoover and Nixon never happen again.