Rogers on Sunday defended the program, calling it a “real success,” and said halting it could expose the U.S. to future terror attacks.

“What you’re doing is taking away the one tool that we know will allow us the nexus between a foreign terrorist overseas talking to someone in the United States,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It has saved real lives, real folks have come home with their legs…because of this program.”

Rogers also suggested that many of his fellow lawmakers may have mistaken notions about the program, which gathers phone records, but not recordings or other information.

“The day before the vote, people were asking how many of the numbers have recordings,” he said. “They were conflating all of those other problems with this particular problem.