Fallen Servicemembers Religious Heritage Restoration Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, FISA section 702 can be a powerful tool against foreign threats, but without significant guardrails against abuse, it is also a massive threat to the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans. That is why I must oppose this legislation.

I have worked for many years, in a bipartisan fashion, to include major reforms to section 702, and I was looking forward to working with my colleagues again to strengthen these protections during this reauthorization.

However, the new provisions in this bill are simply a fig leaf and do not represent real reform. In particular, the supposed new warrant requirement is nothing more than a restatement of current law and completely misses the point of reform.

It is already unlawful to target the communications of Americans under section 702. That is not the problem. The problem is what to do with the massive amounts of U.S. person information that is swept up along with foreign communications.

The intelligence community is not supposed to search this data except under strict protocols. Yet we know that these protocols are violated all the time.

The only solution is to require a probable cause warrant if the government wants to search the 702 database for U.S. person information. That is what this debate is about, and that is the bare minimum demanded by the Fourth Amendment.

The Trump administration's argument appears to be: Trust us. However, that is not good enough for any administration, and especially not for this administration, which has already shown a shocking disregard for Americans' civil liberties.

Mr. Speaker, we should get this right. We should work together, as we have in the past, to strike the right balance between security and liberty. We should put in a probable cause warrant requirement. Until then, vote ``no'' on this legislation.

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