Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendments to H.R. Usa Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank him for his leadership of the Rules Committee and for bringing us together so that we can present this FISA bill on the floor today.

Madam Speaker, when we come to Congress, we all take an oath of office. We raise our right hand to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Protecting that, we are protecting the American people.

Central to that defense is how we do protect and defend, it is about our values, which are part of our strength. It is about the health, education, and well-being of our people, our children, our future, which is part of our strength. Our military might is part of our strength. And our intelligence is very much a part of our strength in order to provide force protection for our men and women in uniform when they go out there to protect and defend our country. Force protection.

When I first started on the Intelligence Committee in the early mid- 90s, a long time ago, I would soon then rise to be the ranking member, and I take great pride in that ex officio all these years since then. When I started way back when, it was about force protection; intelligence to protect our forces to anticipate any initiation of hostilities, and also, when engaged, to have the intelligence to protect them.

Since then, the whole world has changed with technology, and all the rest, in that period of time. So our intelligence has had to change as well. And one of the ways it has, has necessitated us having a FISA bill, the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act.

In the House some weeks ago we passed a bill, honchoed by our two distinguished chairs, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Nadler from New York; and the chair of the Intelligence Committee, Mr. Schiff from California, two committees of jurisdiction. It had strong bipartisan support. It went over to the Senate. In my view, it was vastly improved in the Senate, and it had 80 votes.

Our bill was bipartisan. Their bill was bipartisan, too: 80 votes in the United States Senate for the Senate bill, which was amended by the Leahy/Lee Amendment--very, very protective of the balance that we have to have between security and privacy, security and civil liberties. This is the balance that we have to strike.

In my years on Intelligence, I was focused a lot on the civil liberties part of it, establishing a board, et cetera, to ensure that whatever we did, that balance with our civil liberties was central and important to it.

As Benjamin Franklin said: Security and liberties, you can't have one without the other. They go together, security and liberty.

And so now today, this Rules Committee is presenting that bill, the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act coming back from the Senate. Again, our bill in the House originally was 278 to 136. It was strongly bipartisan, with 126 Republicans voting for it. This bill coming back from the Senate, as I said, had 80 votes over there.

So with an intelligence bill, with a FISA bill, nobody is ever really that happy. I never was. And you always want more or less, as the case may be, but the fact is--and I say this in all humility, because I don't pretend to know more than my colleagues--but in all humility, we have to have a bill. If we don't have a bill, then our liberties, our civil liberties are less protected.

Some people say: I don't care, just let them extend this and extend that. No. There is real value in both the House bill that we passed and then exceptionally so in what the Senate passed. There are those that would not like us to have a bill. Some of them in the judiciary, the Department of Justice, just say: Don't have a bill, just give us all the leeway in the world not to have to protect any liberties. But we can't have that.

We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and all the liberties contained therein as we protect the American people.

So if anybody thinks, well, no, in order to have a bill, we have to have a rule. So I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing this rule to the floor, which enables us to pass a bill. This legislation increases the power of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to pursue its mission to protect Americans' privacy.

After 9/11 this Congress considered the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, establishing the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board. That was one of my top priorities all those years ago. And the Board has done critical work in assessing the privacy and civil liberties impact of the government's collection activities, including under various provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

So, again, this has to be a high priority for us. It was a higher priority in the act that was passed that could get passed in the Senate.

So, again, I am going to submit my statement for the Record that I talk about here. But FISA is a critical pillar of America's national security, which Congress has updated and improved over the last years to ensure that America's privacies and civil liberties are expected.

Are we ever satisfied? Of course not. Of course not. But legislation is just exactly that. Legislation. Our attempt to come together to protect and defend in a way that has already passed the Senate can go directly to the President for his signature, and I hope that that will be the case today.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman again for bringing this rule to the floor. I urge all of our colleagues to vote for this important rule that enables us to do important things for the American people. With that, I urge an ``aye'' vote.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act, a strong, bipartisan bill to reauthorize critical FISA provisions.

In March, our Members worked day and night to craft legislation that strikes a strong, careful balance between security and privacy. We thank Chairman Nadler and Chairman Schiff for their leadership and the expertise they bring on this vital national security issue.

We were proud to have passed that bill on an overwhelmingly bipartisan 278-136 basis, including with the support of 126 of our Republican colleagues.

Last week, the Senate considered the House-passed FISA bill and amended it to further expand the robust amicus curiae provisions in the original House bill. The bill then passed also on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, 80-16, supported by nearly every Republican Senator.

Yet, now, some Members on the other side of the aisle are considering changing their minds and flipping their position, in order to score political points with the President.

As should be clear, political gamesmanship has no place in our national security. Reauthorizing FISA--and doing so in a timely manner--is a matter of keeping the American people safe.

Indeed, FISA is a critical pillar of America's national security, which Congress has updated and improved over the years to ensure that Americans' privacy and civil liberties are respected.

After 9/11, as revelations emerged that the Bush Administration had engaged in warrant-less electronic surveillance of the public, Congress strengthened and updated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Our action helped end this unacceptable practice and ensure that all electronic surveillance of Americans complies with the law.

Since then, the law has been further updated, including through the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 and the USA FREEDOM ACT of 2015.

The bill that the House passed in March took additional steps to strengthen FISA, which are preserved in the Senate-amended bill: placing new limitations on surveillance authorities while ensuring that our intelligence and law enforcement have the tools necessary to keep Americans safe; ending the NSA's call detail records initiative, which the government has confirmed that it no longer uses; strengthening the integrity of the FISA process by increasing transparency and accountability; and expanding involvement of the court-appointed amicus curiae in FISA cases--which was expanded in the Senate bill.

We are proud that this legislation increases the power of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) to pursue its mission to protect Americans' privacy.

After 9/11, as Congress considered the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, establishing the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was one of my top priorities.

The Board has done critical work in assessing the privacy and civil liberties impact of the government's collection activities, including under various provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

As Members of Congress, we take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and to protect the American people.

This legislation honors that oath, as it also honors the patriotic contributions of the men and women of the intelligence and law enforcement communities and the privacy of the American people.

I urge Members to remember their oath and to once again support this critical legislation to keep the American people safe.

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