Usa Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2020
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020.
This bill makes a number of critical and important reforms to strengthen civil liberties and privacy protections under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while simultaneously protecting the national security of the United States. In addition, the bill provides for greater transparency and increased oversight and accountability to ensure the integrity of the FISA process.
Over the past several weeks, Chairman Nadler and I, along with Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer, have worked with Members from across the caucus and the aisle to develop a set of reforms that our Democratic Caucus could be proud to support. This bill is a result of that effort. It builds on the achievements of the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, which passed with 338 votes in the House and the overwhelming support of the Democratic Caucus to put in place long-sought reforms to FISA.
The three expiring provisions that this bill would reauthorize are vitally important to protecting national security. One of those measures, the roving wiretap provision, authorizes continued court- approved surveillance of targets, even if they change their phones or other devices. Its expiration, or that of the other two provisions, would be to no one's benefit. Our counterterrorism and national security activities would be severely hamstrung, and we would have lost the opportunity to press for reforms that we are seeking.
At the outside of this process, administration officials, like the Attorney General, along with Senate Republican leadership, made it clear that they preferred a clean and permanent reauthorization of these authorities. On a bipartisan basis, this bill rejects that demand, producing a bill that holds firm to our commitment to civil liberties, oversight, and transparency, and, importantly, has an important sunset.
Let me describe just a few of the reforms included in this legislation:
The bill would end, once and for all, NSA's authority to collect call detail records on an ongoing basis, and destroy all records previously obtained under these authorities.
This bill would require that the government get a warrant under FISA, if one would be needed in the law enforcement context.
This bill would prohibit the government from retaining business records for more than 5 years, with exceptions, such as an imminent threat to human life.
This bill would expand the appointment of amici in FISA court proceedings, permit amici to seek access to more information, and creating a framework for amicus to seek higher court review of questions of law to the FISA courts.
The bill would also strengthen the requirement for the declassification and release of FISA court opinions and apply the requirements retroactively to prior to the enactment of the 2015 USA FREEDOM Act.
Madam Speaker, I recognize there are additional reforms that Members would like to see in the bill. I sought additional reforms as well. As with any negotiation, no one side is getting everything they want, but I believe it is important to enhance transparency and privacy safeguards whenever possible.
But this is a strong result that makes substantial reforms that so many members of our caucus, myself included, have worked hard to secure for many years. And I will continue to work to secure further protections for privacy and civil liberties and to provide vigorous oversight of FISA.
Madam Speaker, I support the bill, which makes important reforms to the FISA process and urge Members to vote ``yes,'' and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Himes).
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Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren).
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Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers. I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I want to, for my Democratic colleagues, provide a reality check on some of what they have heard during this debate.
It is important to remember that the inspector general report--which, by the way, doesn't go to the expiring provisions that we are here to authorize today. But the inspector general report found no evidence of spying on the Trump campaign.
The inspector general found no evidence of political bias influencing decisionmaking in the investigation of the Trump campaign and its connections to Russia during the 2016 election.
The inspector general found that the investigation, in fact, was properly predicated, that investigation into many of the more than 100 unexplained and often falsely denied contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians during the 2016 campaign, including a notorious secret meeting in Trump Tower between the President's son, son-in-law, and campaign chairman with a Russian delegation that was set up by a series of emails in which a Russian delegation offered dirt on Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign, and the President's son, on behalf of that campaign, said that he would love it and set up that secret meeting. Now, my colleagues don't think that is collusion; the American people do.
Bob Mueller, for his part, much as his report has been misrepresented, makes it clear in the very first pages of the report that he does not address the issues of collusion, only whether he can prove criminal conspiracy.
So it is important, with that reality check, to once again return to the bill before us. With respect to the bill before us, we do make important changes to strengthen the privacy protections, the civil liberties protections. We also retain the important tools necessary to help protect the country, the business records provision, the lone-wolf provision, as well as the roving wiretaps.
The roving wiretap provision, for example, allows the government, when someone, for example, in the midst of planning a crime of terrorism uses phones disposably and goes from one phone to another, it is not necessary to go and get a new warrant every time they change phones. The warrant can follow the individual rather than the phone.
The business records provision has also been very important in terms of our efforts at foreign intelligence gathering as well as counterterrorism. Those authorities would be retained, but new protections would be put in place such that business records couldn't be retained more than 5 years unless certain exceptions applied, protections where, if business records gathered in the FISA context are used in a criminal proceeding, there is notice given to people that they are being used in a criminal proceeding.
There is expansion of the amicus authorities so that we have the amicus involved in a broader scope of cases so the court has the advantage of independent judgment.
Some of those reforms come out of the inspector general's recommendations and looking into the FISA application involving Carter Page. Many of those recommendations have nothing to do with Carter Page and are longstanding interests of the privacy community in trying to strengthen some of the privacy protections.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank Representative Lofgren and Representative Jayapal. We worked extensively, have spent hours ourselves, our staff, consulting and trying to make this a better and stronger bill. While I regret that we couldn't get it to the point where those two esteemed Members felt they could support the bill, nonetheless, their input made this bill better, and I am grateful for their hard work and advocacy on behalf of a stronger privacy and civil liberties protection.
This vote today is the culmination of many months of negotiations. Therefore, with our diverse Caucus, with our friends in the other party who, as you have heard today, we have strong disagreements over the Russia investigation, the Trump campaign's conduct, as well as the FISA process, but, nonetheless, in the interest of our Nation's security, we were able to get to common ground on this measure, giving the government the critical tools it needs to protect the country while advancing civil liberties and privacy rights.
This bill creates a much-needed change to the way government uses FISA, ensures the government is more transparent and accountable, and I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 278, nays 136, not voting 15, as follows: [Roll No. 98] YEAS--278 Adams Aderholt Aguilar Allen Allred Amodei Armstrong Arrington Axne Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bera Bergman Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Blunt Rochester Bost Brady Brindisi Brooks (IN) Brown (MD) Buchanan Bucshon Burgess Bustos Butterfield Byrne Calvert Carbajal Cardenas Carson (IN) Carter (TX) Cartwright Case Casten (IL) Castor (FL) Chabot Cheney Cicilline Cisneros Clyburn Cohen Cole Comer Conaway Cook Cooper Costa Courtney Cox (CA) Craig Crawford Crenshaw Crist Crow Cuellar Cunningham Curtis Davids (KS) Davis (CA) Davis, Rodney Dean DeLauro Delgado Demings Deutch Diaz-Balart Dunn Engel Escobar Estes Evans Ferguson Finkenauer Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fletcher Foster Foxx (NC) Frankel Gallagher Gallego Garamendi Garcia (TX) Gibbs Gonzalez (OH) Gonzalez (TX) Gottheimer Granger Graves (MO) Green (TN) Grothman Guest Guthrie Harder (CA) Hartzler Hastings Hayes Heck Hern, Kevin Higgins (NY) Hill (AR) Himes Holding Horn, Kendra S. Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Hudson Hurd (TX) Jackson Lee Johnson (GA) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Johnson (TX) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Kaptur Katko Keating Keller Kelly (MS) Kilmer Kind King (NY) Kinzinger Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Kustoff (TN) LaHood LaMalfa Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (NV) Lesko Levin (CA) Lipinski Loebsack Lowey Lucas Luetkemeyer Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Sean Marshall Matsui McAdams McBath McCarthy McCaul McEachin McHenry McKinley Meeks Meuser Mitchell Moolenaar Morelle Moulton Mucarsel-Powell Murphy (FL) Murphy (NC) Nadler Napolitano Neal Newhouse Norcross Nunes O'Halleran Olson Palmer Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pence Perlmutter Peters Peterson Phillips Porter Price (NC) Quigley Reed Reschenthaler Rice (NY) Rice (SC) Richmond Riggleman Roby Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose (NY) Rouda Rouzer Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rutherford Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scalise Scanlon Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sensenbrenner Sewell (AL) Shalala Sherman Sherrill Shimkus Simpson Sires Slotkin Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Soto Spanberger Spano Stanton Stauber Stefanik Steil Steube Stevens Stewart Stivers Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Taylor Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Thornberry Timmons Torres Small (NM) Trone Turner Underwood Upton Vargas Veasey Vela Visclosky Wagner Walorski Waltz Wasserman Schultz Watkins Wenstrup Westerman Wexton Wild Wilson (FL) Womack Woodall Young NAYS--136 Abraham Amash Barragan Bass Beatty Biggs Bishop (NC) Blumenauer Bonamici Boyle, Brendan F. Brooks (AL) Buck Budd Burchett Carter (GA) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Cline Cloud Connolly Correa Davidson (OH) Davis, Danny K. DeFazio DeGette DelBene DeSaulnier DesJarlais Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Duncan Emmer Eshoo Espaillat Flores Fudge Fulcher Gabbard Garcia (IL) Gianforte Gohmert Golden Gomez Gooden Graves (LA) Green, Al (TX) Griffith Grijalva Haaland Hagedorn Harris Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hollingsworth Huffman Huizenga Jayapal Jeffries Kelly (IL) Kelly (PA) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kim King (IA) Lamborn Lee (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu, Ted Lofgren Long Loudermilk Lowenthal Lujan Maloney, Carolyn B. Marchant Massie Mast McClintock McCollum McGovern McNerney Meng Mooney (WV) Moore Neguse Norman Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Perry Pingree Pocan Posey Pressley Raskin Rodgers (WA) Roe, David P. Rose, John W. Roy Rush Schakowsky Schweikert Serrano Smith (MO) Smith (WA) Takano Tipton Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Trahan Van Drew Velazquez Walberg Walden Walker Waters Watson Coleman Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Welch Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Wright Yarmuth Yoho Zeldin NOT VOTING--15 Beyer Brownley (CA) Collins (GA) Fortenberry Gaetz Gosar Graves (GA) Lewis Meadows Miller Mullin Palazzo Ratcliffe Rooney (FL) Speier
Messrs. WEBER of Texas, BLUMENAUER, LONG, Mses. VELAZQUEZ, ESHOO, BARRAGAN, SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. DeSAULNIER, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. WATERS, Messrs. GREEN of Texas, RUSH, and Ms. PRESSLEY changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Messrs. KELLER, TIMMONS, and NORCROSS changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. Amendment Offered by Mr. Buck of Colorado
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