USA Freedom Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I would ask the Senate's indulgence. I
actually have three topics that I need to discuss here today. One topic
involves the historic flooding that we have experienced in Texas and
the consequences of that, also the President's signing the Justice for
Victims of Trafficking Act, and lastly, the bill that is before us on
the floor today, which is another tool in the toolbox of the national
security apparatus in this country to help keep Americans safe.

Texas Floods

First, Mr. President, let me talk about the flooding and storm damage
that has affected Texas this last week or so. Over the course of a
month, Texas has faced a deluge of storms and rain, and according to
Texas A climatologists, May was the wettest month on record. Texas
has been in a drought for a number of years now, and we are glad to get
the rain, but we just wish that Mother Nature had spread it out over a
longer period of time. The National Weather Service reported yesterday
that in May Texas skies shed 37.3 trillion gallons of water, which
translates into almost 8 inches of water covering the entire State--a
state more than 268,000 square miles large.

Unfortunately, this historic volume of water quickly turned into
tragedy and massive destruction. Many Texans have experienced great
loss. Some have lost their homes as the rivers came down without any
warning and washed their houses from their foundation. But, of course,
losing your home does not compare to the heartbreak of losing a loved
one, and tragically, at least 24 people have lost their lives in the
floods.

As usual, despite the direst of circumstances, the Texas spirit
remains alive, and we see many volunteers continuing to dedicate their
time and efforts to lend a helping hand. In Wimberley, in central
Texas, a town hit particularly hard by flooding and the overflowing
Blanco River, a group of students and adults helped to organize a
makeshift market in the high school gym. This same group helped
consolidate and coordinate donations to give to those most in need.
Locals in the town of about 2,500 people have come to refer to this as
the ``Wimberley Walmart.''

Fortunately, stories such as these of Texans helping one another are
not isolated--far from it, in fact. Communities across the State are
organizing donation drives to help those who have lost all their
material possessions, and many individuals have selflessly risked their
own lives to help rescue strangers from the floodwaters and the rubble.
To these volunteers, and to the many first responders who are working
tirelessly, we all thank you from the bottom of our heart. During these
hard times, you not only provided relief but you also provided perhaps
something more important, and that is hope.

I spoke to several local officials over the last couple of days,
including Nim Kidd, who is chief of the Texas Department of Emergency
Management. Nim is doing a terrific job in this very difficult
position, and he is performing like the experienced public servant that
you would come to expect, particularly in dealing with disasters such
as this. Nim has said there is a lot of work to be done. He told me
that the rivers may not actually be within their banks for 2 more
weeks, assuming that we don't get more rain.

This weekend, with recovery efforts in full swing and Texans
beginning the painstakingly slow process of answering the painful
question of what now, several Texas rivers remain at flood stage in
more than 100 different locations. So as we start to recover, we are
reminded that we need to remain vigilant.

I was encouraged to hear Nim's report that the assistance of FEMA and
other Federal agencies has been making a big difference. He was highly
complimentary of their contributions. FEMA, as just one example, has
rapidly deployed resources to help assess the damage done in local
communities, and we were both glad to see the President quickly grant
Governor Abbott's request for a major disaster declaration on Friday
night, which will help Texans get the resources they need. I promised
Nim and others I spoke to that I would continue to work with Governor
Abbott and our State's congressional delegation to make sure that the
Federal Government provides all the help Texans deserve during this
difficult time.

So, to those suffering today, I want to offer my deepest condolences
and prayers. We will continue to do everything we can here in Washington,
in Austin, and in local communities that have been so severely
affected, to give Texans the help they need. We have no time to lose in
getting these communities back on their feet. I know the people of
Texas will continue to help their neighbors across the State during
their time of need to ensure that each affected community will make the
fullest and fastest recovery possible.

Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act

Mr. President, on the second topic, on Friday, the President signed
into law the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. I know I speak for
all those involved in the long journey on which this legislation has
led us when I say that I am thrilled that we are able to mark this
milestone. This is a perfect example of Congress working together in a
bipartisan way along with the President to try to do something to help
the most vulnerable people in our society--the victims of human
trafficking. This is an important day, as it shows to both the victims
of human trafficking as well as to the predators who exploit them that
Congress, on both sides of the Capitol and on both sides of the aisle,
takes this issue seriously.

I want to express my gratitude to the organizations and the people
who have helped get this done, lending countless hours and endless
expertise to this cause. Without their advocacy and their
determination, this would not have been possible. I thank in particular
groups such as Rights4Girls, Shared Hope International, the National
Association to Protect Children, the Coalition Against Trafficking
Women, and End Child Prostitution and Trafficking.

It is also important to remember whom this bill is for, and of
course, it is for the victims--typically, a young girl between the ages
of 12 and 14 who may have left home expecting some adventure or
something else other than what they ultimately experienced. Many of
them find themselves victims of modern day slavery and victims of
habitual sexual abuse. This is for women such as Melissa Woodward, whom
I have met. She is from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. At just 12 years
old, Melissa was sold into the sex trade by a family member--as hard as
that is to conceive of. Her life became a prison. She was chained to a
bed in a warehouse and endured regular beatings and was raped. She was
forced to sexually serve between 5 and 30 men every day. Melissa said
that at one point she wished she was dead. As heartbreaking as her
story is--and it is heartbreaking--it is good to know that strong
people such as Melissa--along with the help we can give and others who
care for them can give and with those who can help them from living a
life of victimhood--can be transformed by their experience and regain a
new and productive life. So with this law we begin to provide for
people such as Melissa the help they need to heal, and, importantly, to
treat her and others as the victims they are and not as criminals.
While I am thankful for what will be accomplished through this
legislation, my hope is that we continue to fight the scourge of human
trafficking using this law as the first step of many.

Mr. President, I want to speak about the effort to reauthorize the
critical provisions of the PATRIOT Act that expired at midnight last
night.

As others have observed, there has been a lot of misleading rhetoric
and downright demagoguery about this topic. The issue is pretty
straightforward and simple. This is about how we use all of the tools
available to us to keep our Nation safe amidst pervasive and growing
threats, while at the same time preserving our essential liberties.
This is not about trading one for the other. This is about how we
achieve the correct balance.

Despite our efforts last night, this Chamber was unable to come up
with even a short-term solution to ensure that the key provisions--
including section 215--of the PATRIOT Act did not expire. We know that
any single Senator could object to this extension that would allow us
to continue our work without allowing this program to expire.
Unfortunately, three of our colleagues chose to object to the
commonsense unanimous consent request to allow those temporary
extensions while the Senate and the House continued their work.

It is important to remember that these provisions of the law were
created after September 11 and were designed to equip those
investigating terrorism with the basic tools used by ordinary law
enforcement. Why in the world would we want to deny law enforcement the
investigatory tools they need to keep America safe from terrorist
attacks? That is what section 215 did and does and will do again once
we resurrect it.

Before it expired at midnight, these provisions helped our
intelligence and law enforcement officials keep the country safe. As I
think about this, and in discussing it with Chairman Burr and others
who are very concerned about the safety and security of our country and
who are determined to protect the country by making sure that our
counterterrorism efforts maintain every available legal tool consistent
with our civil liberties, I think what has happened is we have fallen
victim again to the pre-9/11 mentality of considering counterterrorism
efforts to be a law enforcement matter alone. Of course, the Fourth
Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches
and seizures, was designed primarily in a criminal law enforcement
context to make sure that American citizens' privacy was protected. But
what many of those who object to using these provisions fail to
acknowledge is that our intelligence community has to be able to
investigate and detect threats to the American homeland before they
occur.

After 9/11, where almost 3,000 people lost their lives, there was
plenty of time to do a criminal investigation and law enforcement
action, but we had failed in our most essential obligation, which is to
detect these threats ahead of time and to prevent them from ever
occurring.

Importantly, as we discussed the week before last, section 215 in
particular included vigorous oversight measures. It is important for
people to understand that the executive branch--in other words, the
White House--and the legislative branch, which is both Houses of
Congress, and the courts are all very much engaged in the vigorous
oversight of these tools used to protect the American people. By taking
this tool away from those investigating the constant threat stream to
American citizens, we have unfortunately given terrorists an advantage
right here in our own backyard.

As we have reiterated over and over that these threats to our
homeland are real and they are growing. Why in the world would we take
time to gamble with our national security?

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said that our country has
entered ``a new phase in the global terrorism threat'' as the so-called
Islamic State or ISIL continues to encourage people right here at home
to take up the cause of global jihad. Perhaps, to me, the best and most
concrete examples are events such as what happened in Garland, TX, just
a few weeks ago, when two people who had been communicating overseas
with representatives of the Islamic State were incited to take up arms
against their fellow citizens here in the United States of America. Why
in the world would we want to deny our law enforcement and intelligence
authorities lawful tools available to them to be able to identify
people plotting threats against the homeland and to prevent those
threats from actually being carried out?

Thank goodness, due to the vigilance of local police and other law
enforcement authorities, what could have been a bloodbath in Garland,
TX, was averted. Why in the world would we want to take away a tool
available to our intelligence and law enforcement authorities and raise
the risk that an attack here in the homeland be successful rather than
thwarted?

This is not just something that happened in Garland. A few weeks ago,
FBI Director James Comey described the widespread nature of the
threats--so widespread, in fact, that he said all 56 field divisions of
the FBI have opened inquiries regarding suspected cases of homegrown
terrorism. So let me repeat. Every FBI field division in the country is
currently investigating at least one suspected case of homegrown
terrorism.

As my colleagues must know, we do not have to go very far to find
other examples like the one I mentioned that manifested itself in Garland. We read about examples regularly. Just 2 weeks ago, also in my home State of Texas, the FBI arrested a man who
had reportedly pledged his allegiance to the leader of ISIL. According
to the FBI, he is but one of hundreds of ISIL sympathizers here in the
United States, which ought to alarm all of us, ought to be a call to
vigilance and to make sure we maintain every available legal tool
consistent with civil liberties to protect our citizens.

So I think it is obvious that section 215 and the two
noncontroversial national security provisions at issue should not have
been allowed to expire, but unfortunately they were, and now it is our
responsibility to fill that gap by passing this legislation and taking
up the important amendments, which will actually strengthen the House
bill.

We know our country and our people are the target of terrorists
again, and we need to do everything we can to stop them. Well, my
initial preference was to extend these portions of the PATRIOT Act for
a short period of time so we could begin the debate and discuss the
next best move to address these issues without giving the terrorist any
advantage by handicapping the men and women committed to protecting our
homeland.

At a time when the threats to our country are increasing, we should
be enabling our intelligence officials and law enforcement with the
tools they need and not stripping them of the authorities they require
in order to protect us. Clearly a full extension of section 215, which
was easily extended in 2011, is not possible at this time. But the last
thing any one of us should do is allow this program to continue to
remain dark.

I encourage our colleagues to join me in quickly working together to
reauthorize these critical provisions. Every day we allow these
authorities to remain expired, our intelligence officials are forced to
act with one hand tied behind their back.

We plan to make minor improvements to the House-passed bill, and I
think they make a lot of sense, things such as actually getting a
certification by the Director of National Intelligence and this plan to
let the telecoms continue to hold this information and then, after a
court order is provided, allow that search. But certainly we should
want to know whether this actually will work in a way that is
consistent with our national security.

So, essentially, the House provisions are the base bill here, but I
think Chairman Burr and others on the Intelligence Committee have
recommended some very positive, commonsense improvements which will
make this bill better. Working together, the Senate and the House, I
think we can make sure these necessary authorities are restored.

As elected representatives of the American people, it is our duty to
make sure the balance between physical safety and civil liberties is
struck. We will do that again. We can do that responsibly by extending
these authorities and coming together to find a long-term solution that
keeps these invaluable tools in place.

I yield the floor.

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