Extension of Authorities of Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978
Floor Speech
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Mr. MASSIE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this clean reauthorization of an unconstitutional program that is being used to spy on Americans without warrants. This would be the third temporary, clean extension of this unconstitutional program, and I find myself on the unfortunate opposition to the chairman of the committee of jurisdiction, the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan).
I want to read some of his quotes from last year. This is an article in The Washington Post that he so eloquently wrote: ``One year from now, Republicans and Democrats in Congress will have a chance to reaffirm our commitment to the Constitution and better protect Americans from warrantless government surveillance. This will be one of the most important debates we will have this Congress, and it is vital that we begin working now to protect Americans' constitutional rights.''
He goes on to say: ``Our fidelity must always be to the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment is one of the foundations of American civil liberties. It is part of what makes our country great and makes us the envy of the world. We must continue to protect and enhance it. Passing a warrant requirement for section 702 will do just that.''
He goes on to tweet later or earlier than that: ``The same people who spied on President Trump's campaign are now fighting against a warrant requirement in the new FISA bill.'' ``Makes you wonder.''
I find myself disagreeing with the chairman in this debate but agreeing vehemently with him last year and the year before when he pointed out that this program is unconstitutional and there is only one way to fix it: require warrants, judicial warrants.
We saw the President's administration tweet this week that we shouldn't trust these liberal judges in Washington, DC, to hamstring the Secretary of Defense. Well, that is not what we are talking about. Number one, we are not talking about a constraint on the Secretary of Defense or Secretary of War. We are talking about a constraint on the FBI to spy on Americans.
We are not talking about liberal judges since 8 of the 11 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges were appointed by Republicans.
By the way, most of them aren't even in DC.
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