National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chair, the amendment I have offered would prevent the Department of Defense from purchasing data that would otherwise require a warrant, court order, or subpoena. The amendment would also end unauthorized surveillance practices.

The government is currently circumventing the Fourth Amendment by purchasing location data, internet browsing data, and other sensitive information. The so-called data broker loophole is a severe threat to the right to privacy in the United States.

Freedom surrendered is rarely reclaimed, but we must defend our Fourth Amendment.

Government surveillance programs are routinely misused and targeted at Americans. The FBI, in fact, admits it conducted 278,000 improper searches of American citizens in 2020 alone. If the government can buy its way around the Fourth Amendment, there will be few meaningful limits on government surveillance.

We need to pass this amendment. It at least stops the Department of Defense from doing that inside the United States of America.

Mr. Chair, I reserve balance of my time.

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Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the support of my colleagues to get this amendment to this point and, frankly, the commitment to the work ahead. It is important for our national security, but the whole premise of the Department of Defense is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. The way we go about that has to preserve the way of life that our Constitution establishes, that the Bill of Rights guarantees that our protections will exist, and we have a lot of work to do to restore the protections of our Fourth Amendment.

This amendment is an important first step, and I ask all of our colleagues to unite and make it a fully bipartisan level of support.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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