Restore Act of 2007

RESTORE ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - November 15, 2007)

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Mr. SCHIFF. I thank the chairman for yielding and for his leadership.

Over the last 2 years, I have worked with my Republican colleague JEFF FLAKE of Arizona to ensure that the government has all the tools necessary to pursue al Qaeda and all the other terrorists who would seek to harm our country while ensuring that the requirement of court approval of surveillance of Americans on American soil is met.

I am pleased that the committee has included many of the items we proposed, including reiterating FISA's exclusivity, providing robust oversight reporting, requiring FISA Court involvement when U.S. persons are involved, and clarifying that the interception of foreign-to-foreign communications does not require a court order.

To address a concern raised by Mr. Flake, our language makes clear that a court order would not be required for electronic surveillance directed at the acquisition of communications between persons that are not known to be U.S. persons and are reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S., without respect to whether the communication passes through the U.S. or the surveillance device is located in the U.S.

We have also placed additional safeguards to ensure this section is not abused and used to acquire communications of U.S. persons.

I am pleased to yield the balance of my time to my colleague.

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