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Floor Speech

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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues that have done a lot of work on this NDAA. Frankly, it is a huge bill. We are deliberating on a lot of amendments, and frankly, we are not deliberating on a whole bunch more that I wish we could debate.

I do want to rise in support of amendment No. 35 offered by Representative Jacobs which is included in this en bloc package. This amendment would require the Department of Defense to report which agencies have purchased or used American location data, phone records, internet browsing data, and so on. Our amendment does not reveal any classified information.

Purchasing sensitive data about Americans from data brokers and other sellers allows the Federal Government to potentially circumvent Fourth Amendment warrant requirements.

So who is purchasing it is of interest. If it is recruiting command, to find how to microtarget people the way that probably many of our campaigns do, that is something different than what a lot of people fear that it is, that it is part of a surveillance program, and frankly, warrantless data collection on American citizens.

Media reports from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and others have documented the Department of Defense's purchasing of our sensitive data. Military intelligence and law enforcement agencies have the greatest power to abuse this warrantless access to our sensitive personal and private data.

This transparency measure is a first step toward addressing the erosion of the Fourth Amendment, and I am proud to have cosponsored this amendment with Representative Jacobs.

I encourage all of my colleagues to protect our Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

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