USA Freedom Act

Floor Speech

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I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, today we have the first chance in more than a decade to finally place some real limits on the sweeping, unwarranted--and at times unlawful--government surveillance that many of us have fought against for years.

First and foremost--and as the administration acknowledges in its Statement of Administration Policy--this bill will end bulk collection under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, and will ensure that the government is also prohibited from using its National Security Letter authority, or pen registers and trap-and-trace devices, for bulk collection. It does so by requiring the government to identify a specific selection term--something like a person's name, or an account or telephone number--as the basis for obtaining information. This term must limit the scope of records collected to those that are ``relevant'' to an authorized investigation, which requires a reasonable relationship between the particular records and the subjects of a terrorism investigation.

I share the concerns that the current definition of ``specific selection term'' may still allow overbroad collection. But given the ``presumptively relevant'' categories that Congress has already identified in section 215--and because the bill will now require participation of an amicus in the FISA Court who can argue against an overly broad reading of the law--the government would not be permitted to, for example, use an entire telephone area code or an Internet router to collect and warehouse records just because a terrorist suspect might be using a phone in that area code or sending communications that might traverse that router.

Moreover, to the extent the FISA Court ever construes a specific selection term too broadly, other reforms in the bill ensure that Congress and the American people would know about it immediately and could rein them in.

These changes are quite significant, as are the new

restrictions to the use of FISA section 702, which allows the NSA to target persons located outside the United States.

The USA FREEDOM Act on the floor today certainly does not give us everything we want or need. It is the product of heated negotiations across party and committee lines and with the intelligence community. It is far from perfect, but it is an important step forward, and we will work to fix remaining problems and strengthen the bill as it moves through the Senate. But a ``no'' vote on this bill today may mean no reform at all, thus leaving in place the framework that could lead to the continued dragnet surveillance of our citizens. This must end. This still makes critically important changes that we should all support. That is why I will vote for it and why I urge everyone else to vote for it.

With that, I want to thank Congressmen SENSENBRENNER, GOODLATTE, CONYERS, SCOTT, and FORBES, and all the staff members who worked on this bill.

This is a signal occasion. It is the first real progress we will have made--not enough--but a really good first step

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Mr. Speaker, I have heard arguments against this bill, and all of them amount to one argument: the bill doesn't go far enough.

I agree. It doesn't, but it is rarely a good argument against a bill to say it doesn't go far enough, if it goes a long way towards solving a real problem.

This bill will end bulk collection. It will end it under section 215. It will end it under trace and trap, and it will end it under NSLs. Without this bill--and I hope it is strengthened in the Senate--we will have no chance to end bulk collection, and the current framework which allows the dragnet surveillance of our citizens will continue.

I wish this bill were stronger, but it is what we are able to get now. It is a major step forward, and not to pass this bill now would be to say to the NSA: Continue what you are doing, we are placing no restrictions on you beyond what the law already has.

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