Democrats and Republicans alike acknowledged that debate over such basic issues as the limits of personal privacy and the governments ability to seek out domestic threats won’t be subject to much of a public debate or input. In fact, they won’t even be able to discuss what, if any, changes they may be considering to the surveillance laws they have in some cases repeatedly signed off on over the years.

“To the extent that there [would be] changes, they’d probably be classified,” committee member Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters. “Those of us who know more about [this] are sort of hamstrung because of the confidential and classified nature of it. So it’s a tough place to be,” Rubio added.

It’s not like members of the Intelligence Committee don’t talk about classified programs on the record: they do. But following Thursday’s meeting they were remaining extremely tight lipped: while Feinstein was willing to rattle off the names of the faceless national security bureaucrats who briefed members, she remained silent on almost everything else. Other members simply refused to talk to reporters, while others used staff and even Capitol Police to shield themselves from questions.