Damon Paul Nelson and Matthew Young Pollard Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Years and 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to start by recognizing the work of our chairman, Mr. Schiff, on this bill.

Madam Chair, my amendment would require Congress to provide much- needed oversight to the intelligence community's use of face recognition technology. The amendment does three things.

First, it requires the Director of National Intelligence to submit a report to the Intelligence Committees in both the House and the Senate on the use of this new technology. This is a critical step in ensuring that there is a deeper understanding of the technology here in Congress and also, appropriate transparency.

Second, the amendment expresses the sense of Congress that using this technology to suppress dissent, or to target people based on ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion is contrary to our Nation's values.

And finally, it makes clear that Congress believes that the government should not sell or transfer face recognition technology to any country that is using this technology to suppress human rights.

I offered this amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act because I am concerned that face recognition poses grave privacy concerns. As a Nation committed to democratic norms, including constitutionally-enshrined rights to freedom of speech and privacy, it is critical that we ensure that our national security activities do not come at the expense of our individual liberties and our right to privacy. And thus, it is critical that this body know exactly how this technology is being used.

In addition to the civil liberties concerns of those in our country, the technology does disproportionately impact people of color. The technology, unfortunately, misidentifies people of color and women at higher rates than Whites and men, which undermines its usefulness to the intelligence community, and makes it potentially problematic for large-scale use.

Finally, my amendment makes clear that the United States should not be providing this technology to countries who are using it to perpetuate human rights abuses. We should not be selling or transferring the technologies to countries like China, who are actively using this technology to suppress dissent and target minorities, like the Uighurs, a Muslim minority group.

Although this sense of Congress lays down an important marker, we do need to continue to work to ensure that there are proper controls on the sale and the transfer of this technology, and I look forward to doing that with my colleagues.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff), the chairman of the committee.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Garcia).

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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