Reaffirm the Principles of Liberty By Dismantling the Surveillance State

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for bringing this to light, and I am happy to engage in a colloquy with the gentleman. I am going to talk about a few things. I am going to talk about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

We use a lot of acronyms around here, so I am going to try to stick to these words so people understand: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We will talk about facial recognition software, the kill switch in your car, automatic license plate reader cameras, central bank digital currency, and data centers. All are part of what we are here to discuss tonight, which is your privacy enshrined, guaranteed, in this document that everybody here swears an oath to uphold and defend.

I am sure that my friend from Texas, Mr. Self, can see that this thing is made of paper. Try as it may, it can't defend itself. It depends on men and women of good character and integrity to do that job for it. That is how this system was designed. That is how our Founders saw it. It can't defend itself. It depends on us.

In this document, the Fourth Amendment says: You will not be spied on; you will not be searched; your property will not be seized; and your privacy will not be violated without probable cause and due process. Yet, we know it has been violated, Mr. Speaker, Representative Self.

We all took this oath, and the people who violated it took an oath. The people who violated it, whether they were on the court, whether they were in law enforcement, somehow, someway, the piece of paper couldn't stop the violations to the American people and their personal effect.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act--let me be clear, Mr. Speaker. What Americans do, what American law enforcement does, what the American intelligence services do to keep us safe regarding foreigners, God bless them, go do it. Do whatever is necessary within the bounds of legality and morality to keep us safe.

It is called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for a reason, because we are supposed to be surveilling foreigners, foreign countries, foreign entities, foreign individuals, not millions of Americans who were spied on without their knowledge and then found out after the fact. Of course, as the gentleman from Texas knows--well, maybe he doesn't know; I think he does. Well, let me ask you in this colloquy: Who has been held accountable?

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Mr. PERRY. Right? No one of note, for sure.

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Mr. PERRY. No one of note. We spy on millions of Americans and violate their constitutional rights. That seems like a civil rights violation to me, and no one is held accountable.

You couple FISA with facial recognition software, think about the limits of power there. It is ubiquitous now. You can buy this stuff on the open market for yourself, let alone government doing it. It is one thing if a store wants to do it. Maybe you want to do it personally. Maybe your neighbor gives you trouble, and you want to make sure that you see him or her coming before they get there. God bless you. That is your business to protect your property.

But when law enforcement, when the awesome, irresistible power of the government has these things, what are you going to do about it?

Well, I tell you what you are going to do about it--not much, not much. You are going to be bankrupted. Your reputation is going to be destroyed. Maybe you will be falsely accused. When it is all over, when the whole thing is done, you haven't done anything and the government finds nothing, well, they just quietly slink off into the darkness. And you will be left with your shattered reputation, your bankrupt, empty bank account, your destroyed marriage, your destroyed family, your destroyed reputation. That is what you will be left with.

Now, recently, under the guise of safety, this government mandated that every new car in 2027 and beyond will have a kill switch put in it, not because you ordered it, not because you have a family member that you worry is going to drive impaired and you want to make sure you protect them and your fellow citizens. So you say to the dealership: I want to have a switch in this car that I can shut it off in case I feel my loved one is driving impaired.

No. If you are going to buy a car, the government is going to mandate that that be in the car. You're going to get the kill switch whether you want it or not. The car is going to decide, the vehicle--judge, jury, and, as they say, executioner--whether you are going to keep driving or not.

It doesn't matter if it is 2:30 in the morning and Mr. Self--Mr. Self's family member, because Mr. Self is a little bit older than this now--but Mr. Self's family, his beloved family member is taking his wife to the hospital to deliver Mr. Self's grandbaby. Maybe he is driving a little erratically or a little differently than he normally does because the pressure is on. His wife doesn't want to have the baby in the car. She would prefer to have it at the hospital. Well, the car says: Hey, look. Something is off here. I don't like the way you are driving, so I think I will just shut it off and keep everybody safe.

How about this: What about some young lady who is leaving an establishment. She notices somebody watching her, stalking her, following her. She thinks, boy, I either better get home to my father or my husband, or maybe I want to get to the police station. I am a little nervous. I don't know what this person behind me is going to do. Maybe I run the stop sign or whatever.

The car is going to keep you safe. It is going to shut off for you. That is exactly what you need at that moment.

Again, hook this up with facial recognition software before an intelligence surveillance act, and you can see the whole world caving in on you and your privacy. That is the kill switch. Now ubiquitous, automatic--and it is important that you include automatic in this-- automatic license plate reading cameras installed ubiquitously now.

Two years ago, there were probably 500 of them installed. Now, there is 100,000. Businesses are talking about installing them on their location, and businesses are allowed to do that. Maybe they want to determine what time you show up, what you are wearing, what you are buying. It is one thing for a business to do it, but now law enforcement is also accessing it.

Again, when you have to fight the power of the State, it is very, very difficult. And we found out that automatic license plate readers are being installed near gun stores, being installed near gun shows.

Why would that be? To the gentleman from Texas, what if they are installed at your next rally? The law prohibits the Federal Government from compiling a database of those who own guns. But if we have a database of their car, their license plate, model, year of car, what time they came, what time they left, what they were carrying when they came out of the rally, the gun store, the whatever, well, maybe the government didn't get a warrant; but easy enough, Mr. Self, they just buy the data.

Now, I will say this: Myself; Representative Biggs, who is going to be the next Governor of Arizona; Representative Self, trying to save Texas, you won't find any Members more supportive of law enforcement than those three individuals and the people that come up and talk about these issues.

We want a robust law enforcement to go after criminals, to be armed with every single tool necessary for their success and their safety, but--people say: ``Well, you can't say but''--myself, Representative Self, Representative Biggs, and all of those law enforcement officers raised our hands to take an oath to defend this piece of paper that says you will not have your rights violated for expedience because it is easy, because it makes the job easier.

We want their job to be easy, but we have got to set rules here, and we have to follow those rules.

Finally, the Central Bank Digital Currency, I hear people in my office say to me: Nobody knows what you are talking about. CBDC, Central Bank Digital Currency, no one knows what you are talking about, so quit ranting about it. Well, they will know when it is too late, when they no longer have their dollar bills, when they pay with their phone or with their card, and we don't exchange--we are already not exchanging pennies. Oh, it would never happen. We are already not exchanging pennies.

The Central Bank Digital Currency means you will no longer be exchanging dollars, 20s, 50s, 100s. You will no longer exchange them. That will be done with a card. That will be done with a phone, and it will be monitored by the Federal Government at a central bank, digital, card, phone, currency, how you pay for things.

Now, maybe people say to me: Well, why should I care about the cameras? Why should I care about the kill switch? Why should I care about Central Bank Digital Currency? I am not doing anything wrong. Apparently, they haven't read Solzhenitsyn, right, because people didn't do anything wrong in the Soviet Union either.

But as often has been said--and I don't know who the quote really goes to because that is in dispute too, but governments have been known to say things like: ``Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime.''

With all of these things, that is what we are going to have in America. It is slow. It is creeping. It is insidious. It is like boiling the frog.

Representative Self from Texas and me are here to turn down the temperature. We don't want to boil the frog. We are trying to wake the frog up. Don't let this happen in the United States of America. Let's not be like the Communist Party of China with a system of social credits, because after all of this is in place, that will be next.

We say: Well, I am not doing anything wrong. I don't even go to gun shows.

Well, I don't know, there are a lot of people in this country that subscribe and ascribe to climate change theory and theology. It is almost like a religion.

Well, Mr. Self, I don't know, maybe you want to drive a 1978 F-250 with lots of carbon emissions. Mr. Self, I have got facial recognition software. I can see you in that old truck, and now I have got a license plate reader. It doesn't have a kill switch in it, but I think you are exceeding your carbon credits for the day, Representative Self. And maybe I can't shut it off, but now I will send the police out to pull you over. But, Heaven forbid, if I can shut it off--maybe it is a newer one, and you are just driving too much. Maybe Mr. Self doesn't like flying to Washington, D.C., from Texas, so he says: Well, I will drive.

Well, my goodness, you are exceeding your carbon credits for the day, Representative Self. We have to shut that thing off. It is not because your daughter is pregnant. It is just because we disagree with you.

These are the powers that the government should not have. If this is a power that is available, it should be your choice whether you have it in your vehicle, whether you are surveilled on a camera, and whether you let the Federal Government determine whether you can buy something, how much of it you can buy, when you can buy it, how often you can buy it.

Then, finally, I want to talk to you about something that we see happening all across the country now: Data centers.

Now, we understand we are in an existential race against China, who calls us the enemy. They call us the enemy, by the way. China considers the United States of America an enemy, and they would like to defeat us. It is really important that we win this race on artificial intelligence, which requires the use of data centers. But the question is: Where all of these data centers are popping up, is this about the race against China for these data centers, or are we putting a data center up so that we can conglomerate data from automatic license plate reading cameras that are at this store or at that store so that that data can be bought so the other store can say: Well, how can I get this customer from going to that store to this store?

Hold on a second. I am all about commerce and competition, but my license plate and where it is and what it is doing there on what car is my business, not somebody else's business to just use. If they are going to use it, then they ought to pay me for it and ask permission or get a warrant--or get a warrant.

So I applaud my friend from the great State of Texas. I am happy to stick around and have a discussion with him, but we are trying to raise the alarm because the violations have happened. We are pretty sure the violations continue to happen if whistleblowers aren't lying to us.

We also know that some of the intelligence agencies aren't forthcoming with the information, right? So we have questions. We are here because we took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States and all of the amendments--not just some of them, not just when it is convenient, and not just to make things easy for some.

We want to protect America. We want to protect our liberties. We can do both. We have to do both. Just because we have these new capabilities doesn't mean that, suddenly, we walk away from what has made this country great.

With that, I will stay.

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Mr. PERRY. Would the gentleman from Texas agree that all of us men and women fall short of the grace of God?

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Mr. PERRY. Unfortunately, there is darkness within the hearts of men and women. On occasion, we all fall short, and this Constitution exists so that we have a remedy for the times when somebody misuses the awesome power that is provided at the government level, with the use of law enforcement as the enforcer.

I think back to a time not so long ago. There was a pandemic in this country. I was in some state of shock and disbelief that our government told people that they could not work, and that they could not earn a living. They were told that they had to inject an experimental substance into their body or lose their employment. People will say that it can't happen or it can't happen again, but it did happen. It happened just a little while ago.

I am talking to people who say--I see things with my own eyes right now, and I say: ``How did they do that?''

And they said: ``It is AI.''

Mr. Speaker, 6 months ago, we didn't have the capability. We have that capability now.

FISA still exists. Facial recognition software is available. The kill switch is still being mandated for your car. Automatic license plate readers are being installed by the thousands and tens of thousands. We are on the edge--as a matter of fact, we just passed a bill about 1\1/ 2\ weeks ago with a go-live date for a central bank digital currency.

The datacenters that are going to collate all of this information are being put in every single town, in every single State and county, it seems like, across the country, and people don't even know what the datacenter is for. I think people would support them if it was to fight China, but if it is just to collect all this data about all of us, I don't think people are going to go for that.

Yet, I think that is what Mr. Self is getting at this evening. Somebody has to be the stewards of this constitutional right that we have to our own effects, our own privacy, unless there is probable cause that we did something wrong. Not we are going to sweep it all up just in case you did something wrong or just in case we don't like you, and we don't agree with what you are doing, and then we are going to declare it wrong and make it wrong and punish you for it.

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Mr. PERRY. Will the gentleman yield?

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Mr. PERRY. It has already happened. It is happening. It has already happened.

We already talked about the millions of Americans who were spied on under the guise of foreign intelligence surveillance. We have already talked about that. We have already talked about the government lying to us about the effects of the pandemic and forcing us to inject things into our bodies that were experimental.

These things aren't theory. These things aren't something that might happen in the future. These are things that did happen, are happening, and are happening at a more and more alarming rate, and are ubiquitous and becoming more ubiquitous in our society.

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Mr. PERRY. Well, it is interesting. Every single Republican Member here already voted in favor of limiting the government's ability to install a central bank digital currency. We have had assurances from leadership, from the top to the bottom. We are told that people in the other Chamber are all for it, as well.

It is fascinating and interesting to me that, as much as that may be true, and it is proclaimed, we simply can't seem to get an up-or-down vote on it, which leads me to believe they have every intention of instituting it.

The fact that they put a go-live date in the last bill that we passed should sound the alarm bell to every single American who doesn't want their bank accounts to be monitored and controlled by the Federal Government. Do not allow this to happen.

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