Motion to Go to Conference on H.R. Usa Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, everything has changed. The main change is it is worse than we thought.

Since March 10, when this body last dealt with the FISA legislation, all kinds of things have changed.

We have learned from the declassified transcripts how bad the situation was in the prior administration when they went after the Trump campaign.

We have learned about the concerted effort to frame General Flynn, a three-star general, 30 years serving our country, and everything they did.

We learned about January 4, when the FBI agents said: We should no longer pursue going after General Flynn. But what happened? Jim Comey told Peter Strzok: No, no, no. Go tell those agents we are going to continue to go after this guy.

We learned the very next day, January 5, Jim Comey met with the President, President Obama, and talked about General Flynn.

We learned on January 6 what happened that day. We learned that then- FBI Director Comey goes to Trump Tower and meets with then-President- elect Trump and talks to him about the dossier that they already know is false, that they know is Russian disinformation, they know is paid for by the Clinton campaign.

Then what did we learn just 2 weeks later? January 20, 2017, what did they do? They sneak two agents into the White House, two FBI agents, to set up General Flynn.

What else have we learned since we dealt with this issue on March 10?

We have learned about the unmasking of Michael Flynn, 39 people unmasking General Flynn's name, six people in Treasury. What are six Treasury officials doing unmasking the guy who is going to be the National Security Director in the incoming administration?

Finally, and probably most importantly, we have the report from Inspector General Horowitz; not the report he did on the Carter Page FISA--we already got that; we know how scathing that was. We know all the wrongdoings that took place there--but the investigation he is just starting on FISA in general.

He has looked at 29 cases involving American citizens--29 cases--and found in every single one of those cases multiple problems when they were surveilled; again, American citizens. In 4 of those 29 cases they couldn't even find the Woods file. They couldn't even find the file that you have to keep that has the basic evidence that you are then going to take to the FISA court. They couldn't even find it.

So he does something that you hardly ever see. He does what is called a management alert, basically pulling the fire alarm saying this is so bad, I am going to tell you what is going on now; and I have just gotten started on looking at the overall FISA.

So that is what has changed since March 10 when this body dealt with this issue.

And when the President of the United States, a pretty important person in this debate, when he says, you know what? I think we should hit the pause button. We should wait here a little bit until we get to the bottom of everything that took place; what Mr. Horowitz is looking at; what Mr. Barr is looking at; what U.S. Attorney John Durham is looking at. Maybe we should just kind of hit the pause button and figure all this out. That is all he said, and that is all we have advocated. That is why we took the position we did at the conference yesterday, and I appreciate the fact that Leader McCarthy and our conference took that position.

So let's wait and get all the facts. Let's wait until we actually hold people accountable before we renew this program which, as the President said yesterday, does allow some warrantless searches of American citizens. So let's make sure we get it right. That is our position as Republicans.

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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I just want to correct a couple of things that the majority leader said. You guys are the ones that let the FISA law lapse. There was a 75-day extension sent over here. You guys got the majority. You let it lapse.

We want to fix it. We want to correct it. We want to make sure it is not abused like it has obviously been abused. We didn't let it lapse, you guys did.

And frankly, if you guys got the votes for this bill, you got the majority, you could pass it today. You don't have the votes because we need more work to be done on this to correct it.

The leader also said something that was not accurate. He said the President had no basis for the tweet he issued yesterday.

Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?

They spied on two American citizens associated with his campaign, and he has got no basis for the tweet he did yesterday?

They used a dossier to go to the secret court to get a warrant to spy on one of those individuals; a dossier that they knew was false; a dossier they knew was paid for by the Clinton campaign; a dossier that Jim Comey said--not me--Jim Comey said was salacious and unverified; a dossier where the author had already told the Justice Department that he was desperate to stop Trump from getting elected, and they used it to go spy on the Trump campaign.

And the President has no basis for the tweet he issued yesterday?

Are you kidding me? You guys let it lapse. We are trying to fix it because we know how bad it is.

Finally, I would just reiterate 29 cases where American citizens were surveilled by the FBI, and every single one of those was a major problem when they went to the FISA court. As I said before, four of those cases, they couldn't even find the Woods File.

We want to fix this, and we are willing to take as long as it takes.

I agree with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. There are good things in the legislation. I said that yesterday at the Rules Committee. But what I also said at the Rules Committee is: Let's get it right.

If the President is saying that we are not going to do this until we figure out everything that went wrong, I agree with him 100 percent. More importantly, the American people agree with that. They want this fixed. They don't want anything done on this until we get to the bottom of everything that took place in the Comey FBI.

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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert). The judge is my good friend and fellow Judiciary Committee member.

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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, let me first point out, I already said that I supported the legislation. I said that, but I also said we could make it better. And the President, in light of what we have learned in the last 2 months--we need to make it better. I think we can do that.

We should never forget the President of the United States plays a pretty important role. In fact, he has to sign the bills, last time I checked, so his position does have real impact.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Ohio (Mr. Davidson).

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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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