16 former counsel, advisers, and professional staff members of the Church Committee, including the Church Committee's Chief Counsel Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr., write a letter calling on Congress to form a new Church Committee to investigate intelligence activity practices. The letter reminds Congress, the President, and the public about the illegal and unconstitutional actions by the NSA and other agencies that led to the creation of the first Church Committee: “We determined that sweeping domestic surveillance programs, conducted under the guise of foreign intelligence collection, had repeatedly undermined the privacy rights of US citizens.” The letter closes by emphasizing the need for “A Church Committee for the 21st Century- a special Congressional investigatory committee that undertakes a significant and public reexamination of intelligence community practices that affect the rights of Americans and the laws governing those actions- is urgently needed. Nothing less than the confidence of the American public in our intelligence agencies and, indeed, the federal government, is at stake.”