Protecting Diplomats From Surveillance Through Consumer Devices Act

Floor Speech

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Let me first congratulate Mr. Engel on his ascension to the chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I can't think of a better chairman to work with than Mr. Engel, who is always bipartisan, always says that partisanship stops at the water's edge. And I know, being a national security committee, that we will conduct ourselves with dignity and respect for each other. We may disagree from time to time, but we will always respect each other. I look forward to working with him in this Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a bill I sponsored with Mr. Castro of Texas, the Protecting Diplomats from Surveillance Through Consumer Devices Act.

Last year, a report revealed the risk of using wearable technologies such as Fitbits and Apple watches which use GPS tracking. As the report stated, researchers were able to track the movements of deployed troops in overseas locations. This obviously poses an enormous security risk for our soldiers overseas. Enemies could track patrol routes or discover the location of secret foreign installments.

This exposure puts our diplomats at risk as well. We have men and women engaging in diplomatic efforts all over the world, often in sensitive and high-risk areas. We must not make it easier for our enemies to track their movements.

As such, our bill requires the Department of State to establish a policy on the use of location tracking consumer devices by diplomats at U.S. facilities around the world. We introduced this bill last year, and it passed in a large bipartisan fashion.

I want to thank Mr. Castro for his leadership, as well as Chairman Engel for his work on this important legislation. I urge my colleagues to support.

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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I think protecting our diplomats and ensuring sensitive and classified areas is really critical to our national security. This bill does that.

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