CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: National Security Agency

Interview

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REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D) WASHINGTON: A pleasure.

PAUL: Sure. So tell me first off, how do your proposals go further?

SCHIFF: Well, they go further in that they answer a question the president left open yesterday, and that is if you take the bulk metadata program away from the government, then what do you do with it, who holds on to that data? And I think the program should be restructured in a way that the telephone companies hold on to their own data. They do this anyway, and I think we can develop the technological ability to get the information from those phone companies with court approval in the case by case basis where we need that information, where we think the number's connected to a plot. It's more protective of privacy, still meets our national security objectives. That's how I would have gone farther. But I was pleased to see the president took the immediate step of requiring prior court approval. I think that's very important.

PAUL: You know, some of your colleagues I know have expressed concern that individual records authorizations could take days to secure, which might, let's face it, be too long in the case of a possible terrorist attack. How do you respond to that?

SCHIFF: Well, the president articulated, and the bill that I introduced will do the same thing, that in an emergency, you can go directly to the telephone company, get the data, and then get court approval after the fact. If the court says no, you didn't have a reason, sufficient reason to get those records, then they have to be expunged. So that meets the urgent needs.

But there will be many cases where we get information that may be about a historic plot. We want to find out if there are connections between people where there isn't the same time sensitivity. That may be the case more often than not. But in those cases, you should get prior court approval. In the true emergencies, then you can go to the provider first and go to the court shortly thereafter.

PAUL: OK, so let's talk about -- a little bit more about that and these recommendations that would need, you know, Congressional approval. Privacy advocates, it's a secret surveillance court as I understand it, who should they be? When should they be pressed into action? How is that protocol going to work?

SCHIFF: Well, I think that we don't want the privacy advocate in every single garden variety warrant, which would be like having the process every time you needed a search warrant. But instead, in the broad programmatic requests of the FISA court, for instance, when the government comes every three months and says we want to renew the metadata program or we want to start a new program, or there's a unique issue of constitutional law that's raised, those are the cases where you want someone that can say to the court, you know, there's a better way to do this. We don't need to get all these records, or we haven't met the constitutional standard.

So in those cases, which are relatively few in number but very important, that's when you want the advocate. And those advocates I think should come from outside the court. They shouldn't be a court clerk or court lawyer, but rather, I would like to see the privacy and civil liberties board appoint these attorneys or gather a panel of these attorneys that the court could then draw on in these important cases.

PAUL: We only have a second left but I just want -- I know you expressed concern that a, quote, very dysfunctional Congress won't be able to pass some of the NSA reforms. What are your biggest concerns?

SCHIFF: Well, particularly on the metadata program, that has been very controversial. I would like to see the administration do as much as it can without waiting for the Congress. But we do have an end date. The program will expire of its own terms in the middle of next year so if Congress can't rise to the occasion to legislate here, that program will go away completely next year.

PAUL: Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for making time for us. We appreciate it.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

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