The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate wants to know how many phone records of Americans that the National Security Agency has collected in its sweeping surveillance program.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois included a provision in the 2014 fiscal year defense spending bill that would require the NSA to report to Congress on the records, all NSA bulk collection efforts, and the costs. The provision also requires a list of potential terrorist attacks that were thwarted.

Durbin wants the report 90 days after the bill becomes law. The Senate Appropriations Committee backed the effort on Thursday in voting for the bill.

The NSA has said that its two surveillance programs — the other sweeps up Internet usage data — have stopped at least 50 terror plots across 20 countries.

(AP)