as you can see we're waiting for the house to come in for a general speeches this morning and then a couple of bills today one dealing with foreign intelligence surveillance and also a bill on railroad safety also today niki tsongas who yesterday won the massachusetts fifth district races it's possible that she could be sworn in as early as today that's according to the lowell sun out of massachusetts that paper says democratic leaders are eager to have her in place by thursday when the house will attempt over on president as you can see on the bottom of the screen we're reminding you the confirmation hearing for michael mukasey is underway we are airing that live now on c span three you can also follow it on c span radio exim satellite radio channel one thirty two and streaming online at c span dot org limehouse coverage here on c span order the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain reverend ginger gaines to rally capitol hill united methodist church washington d c let us pray holy god in whom we live move and have our being we give you thanks and praise for the gift of life for each new day in which the sun rises and sets affording ever new opportunities to begin again to love more faithfully to serve more humbly the world in which we live is indeed full of beauty and wonder but we know that throughout the world there is great suffering and strife so we pray that the work undertaken by this servant community today will in ways large and small bring relief and release to the afflicted of god may as spirit of friendship and reconciliation guide the words and actions of all these your faithful public servants let their discernment over the difficult issues of our day be wise and loving grant them strength to persevere in the ways that make for peace in all your holy names we pray men thank the chair has examined the journal of the preceding day's proceedings and announces that to the house her approval there of pursuant to cause one of her one the journal stands approved the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from arkansas mr snyder  objection the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for one minute thank you madam speaker a couple of years ago a at a time when the house was in session through the weekend a group of us lonely for our members during the christmas season on a sunday morning ended up in the pews of the capitol hill united methodist church to be greeted warmly by our guest chaplain the reverend ginger against a row ali and her husband we are very very it was the only time i had heard a sermon in which the phrase during the christmas season preggers by god was used we were delighted by her sermon delighted by her warmth and she is here with us today she's a graduate of southwestern university saddlers university in georgetown texas received her master vanity school she has done church work all her professional life her previous head pasturing job was in rockville maryland and she's now for several years with her husband been the head pastor of the capitol hill united methodist church we're very but the chair will entertain up to fifteen further requests for one minute speeches on each side of the aisle chair recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin madam speaker tomorrow this house will consider and answer the question the most essential question of our time what kind of nation are we and in which direction shall we move shall we guarantee access to health care to our nation's children who need us most shall we send our children to the costly emergency room or to their family physicians offices to receive the care they so desperately require whose side are you on failing to care for our nation's children is morally unacceptable this is the view of the march of dimes this is the view of easter seals the faith community throughout the country and countless medical organizations across the land tomorrow i have of represent the hopes and dreams in the lives of eleven million children join us in overright in the presidential veto it's the right thing to do and let's work together across the aisle to build a better future for all of us and i yield back my time and for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise without objection mr speaker i'm somewhat puzzled over an event held on monday of this week the government of russia the government of china and a un agency gathered for a conference and titled exploring cooperative approaches to security in space i find this fascinating co operative approaches to security in space yet china with russia and india's help is almost single handedly propping up the brutal dictatorship of burma this is a brutal dictatorship that uses ethnic minorities as human land mine sweepers has destroyed three thousand villages and has the highest number of child soldiers in the world perhaps china and russia and the un should help bring democracy to burma which would bring security and stability to that country before trying to bring security in space the suffering people of burma deserve better apparently the chinese and russian governments don't think so i yell back for what purpose as a gentlewoman from california arise without objection mr speaker today the house will debate the restore act a bill that ensures the intelligence community has the tools that it needs to conduct surveillance of foreign targets outside of the united states while at the same time restoring constitutional checks and balances that were emitted from the bush administration's fight about i do not pretend that this is a perfect bill if you bill bills meet that standard however the president has made many false claims about it for example he has claimed that this bill will unnecessarily delay the cause the collection of foreign intelligence information and may cause us to go dark while chasing leap that's blatantly false the restore act allows for immediate collection in emergency situations without obtaining court approval so we will never go dark however on my current law the restore act put the fines a court back in the business of protecting americans private communications just as congress intended when it created five to have a truly secure america without compromising american values we must fight terrorists without jeopardizing the civil liberties that make our nation great i urge my colleagues to support this legislation for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana released a weak and ill conceived attempt at reforming our national security intelligence laws today advancements in satellite and fiber optic technologies have led to incredible gains in every area of our society including healthcare economic expansion education and military operations unfortunately though our laws have not advanced and our intelligence community continues to face significant obstacles because of simplistic and antiquated laws make no mistake we live in a extremist groups continue to plot acts of terror against us both abroad and here at home national intelligence director mike mcconnell outlined a list of obstacles he faces with the current pfizer law and the tools he needed to correct these problems sadly the bill proposed by democrats leaves our intelligence community in the dark this is too important to play political games with foreign intelligence we need to vote no on this bill and i yield back the balance of my time what purpose of the generated from pennsylvania rise without objection every day hard working moms and dads without health coverage worry about their children getting the care they need under present this president's watch the number of uninsured children in the country has grown for the first time in years and what has the president done nothing that's right nothing this president has done nothing will work the public and members of congress stand with the president and also do nothing or will they stand with america's children ten million call attention to a tragedy of our own making in may of this year a u s soldier alex jim and as along with several of his friends were captured by al as our intelligence officers wanted to tap into wires to try to find his whereabouts they were hobbled and had to wait ten hours for lawyers to get through the pfizer court and the law to allow them to get the critical information they needed that information lost this soldier and his compatriots have never been found over the bodies of one or two have been found the democrats want to expand this fire is a process now to our war fighting capabilities and hobble our soldiers to have to wait for hours and hours for lawyers to approve gathering from ation back when i was in the state of missouri duty is to defend this nation and protect our citizens and we also know we can keep this nation safe without jeopardizing our own without our own government trampling the civil rights of our citizens in the principles upon which this country was founded before two thousand and one defies a court serves as a checks and balance to the administration to ensure that critical individual rights were not trampled such checks and balances have not bad been in place for the last six years today by passing the restore act  true role of the pfizer court by addressing the curse cern's we have with the bush administration ignoring defies a court jeopardizing our rights violated our constitution and the core principles of this nation mr speaker the restore act is a bill that the mission to win this one without objection gemma's recognized mr speaker on in this day and age of new technologies and a vicious unconventional terrorism we need to provide our intelligence community with the tools and resources necessary to protect our families that is why we must pass a permanent update to the foreign intelligence surveillance act that will protect the privacy of americans while restoring our intelligence gathering case abilities unfortunately the restore act the democrat jeopardizes our intelligence capabilities and provides an precedent protections for terrorist it is a step in the wrong direction the protect america act signed into law in august make critical changes that help intelligence officials properly track our enemies it should be extended the national intelligence director mike mcconnell said this law was urgently needed by our intelligence professionals to close critical gaps in our capabilities and permit them to more readily follow terrorist threats we should keep american families safer and make these changes permanent in conclusion god bless our troops and we'll never forget september eleventh for what purpose the gentleman from virginia right jones recognize mr speaker i rise today to recognize breast cancer awareness month virtually every american has been impacted in one way or another by this deadly disease more than three million women currently live with breast cancer and each year tens of thousands of our wives our mothers our daughters will die from it one of our colleagues congresswoman joanne davis was just taken before her time from breast cancer unfortunately despite medical advances breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death among american women in the united states one in seven will develop the disease during her lifetime but still a cure remains elusive congress hasn't given up the fight h r eleven fifty seven the breast cancer and environmental research act and h r seven fifteen the any fox act are two bills that would bring crucial federal support in two key areas in breast cancer research research and to environmental causes of the disease and research into the causes of the disease and young women who tend to develop more aggressive forms of it additionally and this u s defense appropriations bill one hundred twenty seven and a half million dollars was approved by the house south care law germans recognize that speaker's been thirty years since congress first implemented pfizer allowing the use of telecommunications technology against those who threaten the safety of our people and our way of life the majority party has refused to believe that pfizer needs to be modernized in a way that improves our intelligence agencies capability to gather information not hamper it when pfizer past thirty years ago to have knowledge he didn't include devices used now on an everyday basis just think ten years ago hardly anybody even own a cellphone the director of national intelligence testified before the house judiciary committee that if the government required pfizer court orders for surveillance overseas approximately sixty six percent of the information normally collected would be lost therefore congress should have its duty to update the tools used by our intelligence officials so that they have the ability to gather all the essential information to prevent future attacks pfizer needs to be modernized and courage my colleagues on the floor today to vote against this flawed fison bill jelling us back to what purpose and gentleman from colorado for permission to address with object and jim is recognized good morning mr speaker i rise today in honor of the memory of an american hero retired army reserve brigadier general felix sparks who recently passed away at the age of ninety felix parks lived a remarkable life with a texas native raised in arizona and he answered our nation's call to duty in one thousand nine hundred eighty with his service in the hundred fifty seventh infantry regiment of the forty fifth division during the second world war the youngest supreme court justice in colorado's history at thirty eight years of age he was an expert in water law and he also served as for two decades as the director of the colorado water conservation board felix parks was an extraordinary public servant who embodied the we are constantly hearing over and over protect our freedoms make certain that america is secure and making certain that our homeland security is secure is something that comes to the forefront this week the democrat re store act does fall short it falls short of what is needed to give our intelligence community the effective tools they need to detect and prevent terrorist activities and that is what we want to do to prevent it this  bill would restrict the intelligence community and in many cases it gives the appearance of favoring those who do not have our best interest at heart is that a message that we would seek to san our intelligence community deserves the full resources of the federal government not the red tape of a typical bureaucracy while we agree that proper oversight is necessary oversight should never prohibit the men and women in the intelligence community from doing their mr speaker two hundred twenty years ago when the founding fathers wrote the constitution of the united states it's they chose to port create the united states congress in its first article that was their way of ensuring that we did try to form a more perfect union over the last few decades presidents and congresses of both parties through action and inaction have allowed our system of checks and balances to go quite askew many of us believe that  reached a tipping point and that is why we will over the next few weeks and months talk about article one the article of the constitution which vests all legislative power in a congress of the united states elected by the people the founding fathers did not want to see people's lives be decided by one decider they vested their power in the people through their representatives and over the next few months we hope to help reassert the authority that the founding fathers and vision for this body  without objection was recognized one minute the time has come to do away with the fairness doctrine once and for all the broadcaster freedom act that i introduced this summer would ensure that no future president could regulate the airwaves of america without an act of congress but it's yet to be scheduled for a vote moments ago along with the full republican leadership in congressman greg walden i filed a discharge petition on the broadcaster freedom act the american people should know if two hundred and eighteen members of congress signed this petition we can demand an up or down vote on legislation that would keep the so called fairness doctrine from ever coming back i say to my colleagues if you oppose the fairness doctrine sign the petition if you cherish the national asset of american talk radio sign the petition but if you simply believe that broadcast freedom deserves an up or down vote on the floor of the people's house sign the petition because when freedom gets an up or down vote on the people's house floor freedom always wins i urge my colleagues to sign the discharge petition for h r two nine o five the broadcaster freedom as you know  constitution and to override the president's veto of the children's health insurance program this vote is significant because it underlines the difference between what the president values and what the american people value to the president and his allies in congress are under ninety billion dollars this year for the occupation in iraq is a necessity but thirty five billion dollars to provide health care to ten million uninsured children in america is an extravagan if we're successful and we override that veto tomorrow chip will preserve the coverage of eleven thousand eight hundred ninety two children in my home state of new hampshire and make funds available to cover an additional eight thousand seven hundred twenty kids if we are not successful i'd personally like to invite president bush and his allies in congress to come home with me to concord new hampshire and explain to these twenty thousand kids why they can't go to a doctor when they break a bone or get medicine until we have a process in place where we can fully vet all earmarks earlier this year the chairman of the house appropriations committee said that is simply impossible we don't have the resources to investigate every earmark request i agree however rather than approving thousands of earmarks anyway the prudent force would be to take a break and re evaluate the system without the resources to that over eleven thousand earmarks in the house and senate this year ba earmarks are sure to slip through the cracks not only do these earmarks bring embarrassment to members they bring shame to the institution our constituents expect better of us they should get it mr speaker the house has traditionally had a process of authorization appropriation and oversight a process that we've abandoned in recent years until we can get back to that system we need to take a break from earmarks now you'll back jim when you look back at what purposes jennifer missouri ri you mr speaker a march twenty second one hundred fifteen in missouri general assembly set aside the third wednesday of october each year as missouri day due to the efforts of mrs anna coren a native missourian there is a missouri day the time for away from home here in washington please join fellow missourians here in our nation's capital tonight from five thirty to seven thirty in seventeen ten longworth for missouri day two thousand and seven celebration i yield back john us back to what purpose is the gentleman from new mexico must recognize one minute mr speaker among all the important decisions and dramatic debates of the day i would like to pause and remember the personal occurrences that happened to each one of us as americans in our lives each one of us is citizens of the world today october the seventeenth is my anniversary and i would speak to my wife the wives of my youth that how i treasure the days of our lives together the moment stolen from hectic days we have been richly blessed with health home and happiness we have freedom good mental acuity spiritual fulfillment and peace that flows through our lives are abiding joy in our father the creator our pleasure in our grandchildren our sense of pride in our daughter and our sense of love and respect for a son in law our deep well springs of cool water that refresh our lives and renew us daily my wife is the delight of my life the sounding board of my ideas the cause of laughter within me she is the reason that i strive to be a better person my wife is my partner in business my partner in service and my partner in life shield my wife the wife that i treasure and love god bless my wife and god bless all spouses who act on electronic surveillance which its well intentioned authors believe will help both protect our liberties and protect our security it does the latter but unfortunately does not fully do the former the bill includes a provision that could be used to spy on americans without warrants there's no need for us to pass in haste yet again a bill that does not protect the citizens we must not give in to the politics of fear i urge our leadership to make the changes necessary to this bill so that it protects our citizens from both enemy attacks and warrantless government surveillance executive branch assurances that the rights of americans will be protected through administrative procedures are no substitute for judicial protections in recent weeks and months we've seen too many abuses of administrative warrants recognized for one minute thank you mr speaker minnesota is known as a state of great longevity we have the longest married couple in the history of the united states living in my district we also have some of the longest living people in the united states in my district this week i had the occasion to wish one of my constituents happy birthday on her hundred second birthday and i want to honor another constituent from my hometown who's a hundred this week and i want to wish happy birthday t erna wealthy of stillwater minnesota she has seen the great depression she has seen world war two she's seen the space race she's been alive before television and during television she's seen it all but earnest said i don't feel that old she's young at heart and just recently when she celebrated ninety years of age her granddaughter taught erna how to drive a car for the first time she learned to drive a car she's a wonderful witty wise individual and i am so grateful for the senior citizens of the united states particularly the particularly those long living happy people who live in my district earn a happy birthday to you and to our nation's finest our senior citizens i generally yields back to what purposes the gentleman from tennessee right now one minute jim was recognized for one minute thank you mr speaker president bush and congressional republicans have no problem writing blank checks for the war in iraq but ask them to prioritize the health care needs for ten million low income children and they can't be bothered every month every month we are spending nine billion dollars in iraq that is borrowed from our children because the president has always demanded the funding for the iraq war be classified as emergency spending and therefore not subject to the pay as you go rules three and a half months of iraq war funding equals the funding needed to extend health care coverage to ten million children over the next five years and unlike the war our children's health is fully paid for with absolutely no deficit spending and yet president bush vetoed this bipartisan compromise because he had said it included excessive spending mr speaker house republicans need to show the president that there are other priorities in our nation's beside the never ending war in iraq they should send that message by joining us tomorrow and overriding the president's veto and caring about our nation's children thank you mr speaker when you expect what purposes the generals and the rest of us jim is recognized for one minute mr speaker on friday october twelfth and rescue national guards ten seventy fourth transportation company returned to a hero's homecoming in north platte nebraska the tenth seventy fourth headquartered out of north platte with attachments in broken bow the brassica return to nebraska after a yearlong deployment to iraq while in iraq the ten seventy fourth transportation companies primary missions were convoy security and local humanitarian support the ten seventy fourth tragically lost one of their own sergeant randy metheny a native of mccook nebraska made the ultimate sacrifice to his country on february fourth two thousand and seven and i join my fellow nebraskans in offering my sincere sympathy and continued thoughts and prayers for the mini family reception the ten seventy fourth receive from family friends and supporters upon their return to nebraska was truly inspiring as thousands literally thousands of well wishers welcome these american heroes home in an incredible display of patriotism and pride i wish to c appreciation to the ten seventy fourth upon their safe return to nebraska and certainly commend baskins for their amazing show of support and giving our soldiers the warm heartfelt reception they deserve thank you i yield back jim and us back to what purpose the gentleman who new jersey rest without objection mr speaker today we will restore some important checks and balances to our nation's intelligence gathering in august the bush administration pushed through congress a last minute bill that gave it the authority to go after americans without warrants a direct violation of our nation's constitution the administration's bill included in bigamous language that could be read by some as authorizing warrantless domestic searches the restore act clarifies this language and specifically prohibits warrantless surveillance of americans and requires a court order before targeting americans phone calls or e mails it also includes strong to audit and reporting requirements so that congress knows who's conversations are being captured we include all these protections but we also ensure intelligence officials have the ability to conduct responsible surveillance under the law every member of congress is committed to strengthening our intelligence community and ensuring they have tools they need to keep our country safe but the restore act finds the proper balance and should receive strong bipartisan support today so much time expired for what purpose for what purpose and gentleman who or house for one minute and revising so my without objection just recognized thank you mr speaker i join my congressman from indiana my or my friend from indiana mike pence congressman in asking our colleagues to sign the discharge petition today to bring the broadcast freedom act to the floor broadcast freedom act builds on a initiative that was passed yesterday overwhelmingly by this house to protect the rights of reporters and their sources from government interference so that we can have a vibrant fourth state a vibrant press and a free and informed democracy broadcast freedom act would prevent bureaucrats and government agencies from censoring and micromanaging what is said on the public's airwaves it's all under the guise of restoring the fairness d so called which had an incredible credible free speech problem that even the courts recognize and yet there are some who don't like what they hear on broadcast and t v talk shows and the powerful lead in this city would like restore the brought the fairness doctrine we cannot let that happen not on religious broadcasters not on liberal broadcasters not on conservative broadcasters signed a discharge petition bring the freedom of time  thirty six house resolution seven forty six resolved that upon the adoption of this resolution a child be in order to consider in the house the bill h r three seven seven three to amend the foreign intelligence surveillance hundred seventy eight to establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence and for other purposes all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived except those arising under clause nine or ten of rule twenty one and lou of the amendments printed amendments recommended by the committee on the judiciary and the permanent select committee on intelligence now printed in the bill the amendment and in the nature of a substitute printed in part a report of the committee on rolls accompanying this resolution modified by the amendment printed in part b of such report shall be considered as adopted the bill as amended shall be considered as read all points of order against provisions of the bill as amended are waived the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended to final passage without intervening motion except one one hour and thirty minutes of debate with one hour equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee on the judiciary and thirty minutes equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the permanent select committee on intelligence and two one motion to recommit with or without instruction section two during consideration of h r three seven seven three pursuant to this resolution not withstanding the operation of the previous question the chair may postpone further consideration of th such time as may be designated by the speaker general board is recognized one hour it is very much mr speaker for the purpose of debate only i yield the customary thirty minutes to my namesake and good friend the gentleman from washington representative hasty extraneous materials into the record without objection are you myself such time as i may consume is recognized to such time as rick baker house resolution seven forty six provides for consideration of h r thirty seven seventy three the restore act of two thousand and seven under a closed rule the rule provides ninety minutes of debate sixty minutes will be equally divided and controlled by the chairperson and ranking minority member of the committee on the judiciary thirty minutes will be equally divided and controlled by the chairperson and ranking minority member of the house permanent select committee on intelligence w resurgence of al qaida and an increasing global threat from weapons of mass destruction in places such as iran every single person in this body wants to ensure that our intelligence professionals have the proper resources they need to protect our nation as vice chairman of the house intelligence committee i assure you that each and every one of us on that panel and other republican or democrat are working tirelessly and often together to do just that but the government is not exempt from the rule of law as our constitution confers certain unalienable rights and civil liberties to each of our after the terrorist attacks of september eleventh the bush administration upset that balance by ignoring the foreign intelligence surveillance act commonly referred to as the  establishing a secret wiretapping program and refusing to work with congress to make the program lawful democratic members of the intelligence committe led by the distinguished chairperson sylvestre reyes have been trying to learn about the bush's administration pfizer program for years but the administration which has been anything but forthcoming has done everything it can to stop us from doing our job and helping them to do there's better footnote right there mr speaker in today's washington polls it's reflected as late as now that the restore act is on the floor of the administration has agreed to give certain information to the senate and still not to the house when then ministration finally came to congress to modify the law it came with a flawed proposal to allow sweeping authority to eavesdrop on americans communications while doing all most nothing to protect their rights the restore act true to its name restores the checks and balances on the executive branch in hand saying our security and preserving our liberty it rejects the false statement that we must sacrifice liberty to be secure it does not go as far as i would want it to go it does not go as far as some people would like for it to go but it does protect our liberty and secure as this nation the legislation provides our intelligence community with the tools  needs to identify and disrupt terrorist attacks with speed and agility yet another foot not less because while we concentrate on surveillance or as it pertains to wire i would have people  know that the terrorists by now have been pretty well educated about these matters and may very well be using up a methodology is totally unrelated to the telephone i remind people when it was leaked to the media  that osama bin laden was using a certain kind while he hadn't been heard from in that forum sense so let's be very cautious to not put all our eggs in the surveillance basket there are other methodologies that might be employed that i assure you the intelligence community is mindful of and right on as it pertains to discovering them it provides additional resources to the department of justice the national security agency and the pfizer court to assist an auditing and streamlining the pfizer application process while preventing the backlog of critical intelligence gathering the restorer rack warrantless electronic surveillance of americans in the united states including their medical records homes and offices it requires the government to establish a record keeping system to track instances where information identifying u s citizens is disseminated this bill preserves the role of the pfizer court as an independent check on the government to prevent it from infringing requires the constant oversight and really regular evaluation of our highs along actions which were largely neglected during the last six years of republican rule all of the american people all the american people have to do is pick up a newspaper to read about what happens when this government is has unfettered access to  according to a letter to congress from a company executive whereas than alone has fielded almost two hundred forty thousand phone records requests from the f b i since two thousand  nearly sixty four thousand of these requests or over one quarter of them were made without a warrant this is almost one hundred phone records requests per day by our government to  congress about this week because the bush administration has consistently refused to answer questions about the president's program even more it doesn't factor in the hundreds of thousands of requests which were made to all of the phone companies during the same time that we don't know about this is because if we've learned anything since the terrorist attacks of september eleventh it is that the balance between security and civil liberties is not only difficult but absolutely critical the restorer does absolutely nothing to block or handed the efforts of our intelligence community a member after member on the other side are going to come down here and comment that it is hampering our intelligence efforts quite the contrary it enhanced is their ability to do their jobs effectively and ensure the integrity of their efforts urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying legislation and with that mr speaker i reserve the balance of my time revise extend my remark without objection this is speaker yesterday the rules committee held a hearing to consider a rule for h r three seven seven three the restore act at the outset of the hearing the chairwoman of the rules committee did something republicans would not have even contemplated when we're in the majority before the members of congress even had an opportunity to testify in front of the rules committee the chairwoman announced at the rule would be closed sure further went on to say no notice was sat sent out seeking amendments from members yet at least only seven amendments on a bipartisan basis were submitted to the committee i guess  now that no and then them announcement is code for no opportunity for a meaningful open debate while surprising this action is unfortunately not unprecedented for this democratic controlled rules committee so  made in order it is sad that yesterday the minds in ears of democrat members the rules committee were closed to even allowing to even allowing for the consideration of amendments and alternatives to legislation important legislation aimed at closing loopholes and strengthening our national intelligence capabilities mr speaker in one thousand nine hundred seventy eight congress and acted the foreign intelligence surveillance act or feisal to establish a procedure for electronic surveillance of international communications as an act of into law fights ahead two principal purpose first to protect the civil liberties of americans by requiring the government to first obtain a court order before collecting electronic surveillance or intelligence on u s citizens in our country second to last testified how intelligence officials working to perfect or to protect our national security could collect information on foreign persons in foreign places without having to get a warrant the intent of the original faisel law was to enhance american security while the same time protecting american privacy recognizing that no responsibility the federal government is more important in providing for the defense and security of american people congress should be doing all it can to ensure that face it continues to reflect the intent of the original law in an eerie thirty years since feisal became law we have seen tremendous advances in communication technology such as the internet cell phones and human email however under the original faisel law our intelligence officials are not free to monitor foreign terrorists in foreign countries without a court order because of advances in communication technology forward to close our nation's intelligence gap but unfortunately only for a six month period the protect america act passed only asked after repeated attempts by republicans to give our nation's intelligence professionals the tools and authority they to protect our homeland this action was long overdue and this law mark a significant step towards improving our security now congress mess act again to renew this law by early next year before it expires a national security once again be at risk unfortunately the legislation before us today the restart act does not provide the security we need to protect our troops and our nation from a potential future terrorists attack the bill also weakens americans privacy protections in failed to prove the close our nation's intelligence gap specifically mr speaker the restore act does not go far enough to reform outdated pfizer regulations that burden our troops in the battlefield it contains no provision for third parties to challenge face a court orders the bill also creates a centralized database the second actually increase the risk of privacy violations another major concern is that the restore act and contain get another sunset provision that forces a bill to expire on december thirty one two thousand and nine unnecessarily again leaving our intelligence officials without the tools they need to protect is alarming to me that this rule brings a bill to the house floor that goes so far as to weaken american privacy protections while at the same time struck the protections of our enemies in times of war  speaker as i mentioned earlier nearly thirty amendments were submitted by members on both sides of the aisle to address these and other concerns in the gym a democrat majority has failed attempt to update our current faisel laws however none of these amendments which range from perfectly strengthen our face a law to requiring to acquiring communications of foreign terrorists in foreign countries without a for vice a court order were allowed to be considered on the house floor today under this rule because truly disappointing to me that every member of this house is prohibited from offering changes to this bill that could make it more effective in our constant battle to prevent a future terrorist attack against our nation after all if we cannot come together and work in a bipartisan manner on issues as important as improving our national security then what can we work together to work on sadly because  seriously flawed bill that threatens that threatens not improves our national security sadly this croes process just sounds all american voices from vienna hurt and alternately every american could suffer consequences if this rule in the bill or adopted their ferrari urge my colleagues to vote against the rule and i reserve the balance of my time jelani service time demos in florida you know mr speaker before i yield all i'd like to assist my colleague from washington who is my good friend i was in the majority all last year when the wilsonville h r fifty eight twenty five days electronic surveillance modernization act was considered by the house it was considered under a closed my friend from florida iraq this morning to speak in favor of the rule on the restore act h r thirty seven seventy three i believe this is an appropriate rule given the large number of amendments that were considered both the house judiciary and the intelligence committees want to highlight some of the most important revisions and this bill provided through this rule and stay upside delete can be taken to strengthen the intent of legislation as the speaker in section five of the current legislation requires quarterly audits by the justice department inspector general on communications collected under this legislation which would then be provided to the fly's accord to congress in the end this issue the issue is that without outside oversight such as the pfizer court you put a huge amount of authority in the hands of a very small number of people and leave an awful lot of their individual judgment in dealing with very sensitive issues of personal privacy i hope that under this section that the justice department inspector general would also be inclined to include statistical information as is possible relating to the sex race ethnicity religion age of u s persons identified in intelligence reports obtained pursuant to the legislation this data will help our intelligence agencies the pfizer court the congress to gain a clear overview of intelligence collection on american swept through these types of investigations and will create the necessary oversight to judge whether a pattern of profiling is occurring i don't want to draw attention to th approved by the intelligence committee this would require that the pfizer corps approve guidelines to ensure that an individual files a court order is sought when the significant purpose of an acquisition is to acquire the communications of a specific u s person reasonably believed to be located in the united states this is a vital provision to the bill that makes clear that no american people can be the target of surveillance under this bill unless an individual warrant is  an additional thirty minutes under this provision i hope we will also make clear the sensitivity sir randy communications between americans and family members who may live abroad we need to make certain that no american regardless of their foreign family connections can be the target of surveillance without an individual warrant being obtained from the pfizer court we're not trying to protect foreigners we're trying to protect americans and safeguarding the speaker yesterday afternoon eight of our colleagues sat before the day s of the rules committee with twenty seven different proposed amendments that they wanted to offer to improve this very important measure to work in a bipartisan way to improve it before they were able to utter their first words they were told in response to a question that came from our friend from pascoe mr hastings that this was going to be a closed rule and mr speaker a close rule means that no amendments offered no alternative proposal is allowed at all we simply get the measure that is before us and that is it now that's when there were twenty seven different amendments that were proposed and as i said eight members waiting to offer and discuss their ideas they were completely shut out from that now  speaker it saddens me to report to this house that we today have achieved something that is not great for this institution as of today mr speaker in one hundred tenth congress we have had more close rules in a single session of the united states house of representatives than we have in the two hundred and eighteen year history of this great institution of the sad thing about that mr speaker is the fact that we were promised something much different and this bill is critically important for our nation's security one of the very thoughtful proposals to come forward make great sense it's the idea of saying that when the government asked the private sector to help us work to interdict those communications taking place among people who are trying to kill us terrorists who are trying to kill us we should allow them to do that we should allow them to have immunity from the threat of prosecution if that in fact is being utilized but is it unfortunately our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have failed to allow that proposal for those people who were asked by the government to help us win the global war on terror to make sure that osama bin laden and other terrorists do not have the potential to kill us and now what we've been told and we heard countless democrats say ah you know these people in telecommunications industry they've got enough money they're making enough money let them stand on their own well mr speaker that is just plain wrong and we unfortunately with this rule are not even allowed a chance to debate that which to me is absolutely outrageous what we have before us mr speaker is a close rule on a bad bill  can't the common law tragically that's a pattern that we've been facing for a while the exact same thing as happened on the bill that we're going to be voting after it was sent here two weeks ago on the s chip legislation we're going to be voting on that tomorrow so mr speaker let me just say again this is a close rule on a bad bill that can't become law we've got to defeat this rule we've got to make sure that those people who are working to keep this country safe have all the tools necessary to make that happen without you back to bounce my time showing you is back to gentleman from florida mr speaker make one reference to the computer and communications industry association which our rights and support of the house judiciary committee's approach to retroactive immunity contra to what the previous all speak of my good friend the ranking member just that regarding that matter  mr speaker i yield one and a half minutes to the gentleman from new jersey a distinguished member of the intelligence committee my good friend rush holt who is also chair of the special intelligence oversight committe was recognized for a minute i have mr speaker i i thank the gentleman the restore act which is well meaning authors believe will both help protect our liberties and our security does the latter but unfortunately does not fully do the former if i had more time i would talk about the good features of this bill but on in the time i have i would like to point to the one thing that it needs most that it lacks which is ironclad language that maintains the fourth amendment individual warrant requirement when when americans property or communications are searched and seized by the government the restore act would allow the government to collect the communications of in americans the executive branch assurances that the rights of americans will be protected through administrative procedures are no substitute for judicial protections in recent weeks and months we've seen too many abuses of the ministry of administrative warrants to find any reassurance or to even find these assurances believable yes i voted yes in committee to bring this to the floor with the assurances that we would work to get it better i regret to say that i've seen no effort to resolve this point it could be fixed easily to the safety of americans because americans will be safer when agencies have to demonstrate to a court that they know what they are doing we get better intelligence just as we get better law enforcement when you do it by the rules in fact my own leadership by i believe would deny me holt's new house special intelligence oversight panel and as a lifelong resident of new jersey a state which is still a feeling in the heart rending damage of september eleventh two thousand and one we will never forget what happened that day and i work each and every day to prevent another such attack my colleagues i recognize that achieving the proper balance between our national security and our civil liberties is a real challenge but we must also recognize that our war against violent international extrem is the first conflict for the information age with our technical assets and expertise the united states is far better at gathering information at this point in history than our enemies this is an advantage we must exploited to better protect the american people from those who would do us harm and why are we on the floor debating a rule in legislation that essentially amounts to unilateral disarmament on our part last august congress an act that the protect america act legislation  modernize the old foreign intelligence surveillance act pfizer and close dangerous loopholes that prevented our intelligence community from monitoring overseas communications between al qaeda members and other terrorist groups plotting and planning their next attack on u s citizens and our interests at home and abroad these were not conversations involving americans these were communications between foreign targets overseas director of national intelligence  asked congress and i quote to make clear that court orders are not necessary to effectively collect foreign intelligence about foreign targets overseas i repeat foreign intelligence about foreign targets overseas but this new proposed legislation would not only undo the progress made by the protection american act but it would do further damage to our collection efforts since it was an accident one thousand nine hundred seventy eight fi n never required our government to require court orders for foreign communications persons reasonably believed to be outside the united states this bill would require such a court order and thus gutting thirty years of foreign intelligence collection once again mr chairman i understand that the achieving the proper balance between national security and our civil liberties is a challenging task i believe the protect america act achieve this goal the bill requires a warrant to target a person in the united states but allowed u s intelligence agencies to listen to foreign persons in foreign countries why is this important because speed matters in a war on terrorism where terrorists are using our communications networks  not theirs and ordered to try to harm us this is not about politics it's about ensuring that we give our security personnel the tools they need to protect our families from future terrorist attacks mr  seventy three representative anna eshoo from california representative the trooper's burger from maryland representative dennis moore from kansas representative seato the biggest from texas representative earl pomeroy from north dakota representative leonard boswell from iowa river senate of baron hill from indiana and representative patrick murphy from pennsylvania who would like to thank them for their co sponsorship and asked that they be recognized as such and i would finish up by to the delman from california mr royce member it only carries recognizer three minutes but i think the gentleman i'm rising to oppose the rule the colleagues for the first time this bill would stop intelligence fashion is from conducting surveillance of foreign persons in foreign countries in unless they can read the mind of their terrorist targets and guarantee that they would not call the united states or one of their people in the united states this is more protection than americans get under court ordered warrants in mob and other criminal cases so the issue we're debating today is very important it is a matter of life and death essential and i serve as ranking member of the terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee that there has not been a terrorist attack on our soil since nine eleven is due to the improved surveillance in real time that we're able to conduct against foreign terrorists that good record though in no way should lead us to discount the jihadists because the image of the some of bin laden his allies operating in some remote terrain somewhere may give the impression that our foes are isolated they are not isolated we are confronting a virtual caliphate radical jihadists are physically dispersed but they're united through the internet and they use that tool to recruit and plot their terrorist attacks they use electronic communications for just such a purpose and they're very sophisticated in that use so how is the west attempted to confront that well the british use electronic surveillance in real time and they used it last year to stop the attack on ten transatlantic flights they prevented that attack in august of last year by wiretapping the french authorities used wiretaps to lure jihad us basically into custody and prevented a bomb attack given this threat unfathomable that we'd we can our most effective preventive tool and that's exactly what this bill bill does before we passed the protect america act in august the director of national intelligence told congress we are losing up to two thirds of our intelligence on terrorist targets and admiral mcconnell went on to testify we're missing a significant portion of what we should be getting though admiral mcconnell has served both democrat and republican administrations with distinction now his credibility has been attacked i'd ask those so distrustful go ahead to scout his estimates cut them in half say we lose one third of our intelligence by passing this bill isn't that too much to give up i don't want to lose a single percent of our intelligence on terrorist communications with nuclear and biological material floating around this globe we don't have that margin of error we've heard the a c l u concerns but before we unilaterally disarm before we hobble our ability to listen in real time to the very real terrorists who are attacking our troops in iraq every day shouldn't we have something of an accounting of the supposed civil liberties price we're paying frankly i don't see the troubling cases when i do see is a very misguided concern for the civil liberties of foreigners having conversations with terrorists this bil grants privacy protection to foreigners those believed to be terrorists by requiring the intelligence community to see court orders to collect foreign intelligence on foreign targets this process in the past has clogged the pfizer court it's wasted untold intelligence hours it's pulled arabic and earth two and farsi speakers off of listening to terrorist cases and put them on filing hundreds of pages of paperwork facer restrictions hindered the search for kidnapped americans in iraq my colleagues it's come down to this are we interested in best protect american lives are giving away privacy rights on the part of the foreigners involved in conversations with him was fired is the right balance between national security and the protection of all civil liberties i beg to differ with my good friend from california because in fact there are elements of this bill that clearly provide the parameters for foreign to foreign surveillance the only difference is the fact that we protect an american citizen who may be targeted inappropriately as the court intervenes in providing a warrant my friend we are moving forward to secure america i support this rule and i support the rule in its present form because we need to now substitute a real bail that secures america supported by the language of director mcdonnell and as well provides the civil liberties that all americans deserve i look forward to debate on the floor the restore act is what it says protecting us and providing the right to surveil and ensure thank the gentleman from washington i rise in strong opposition to this bill and i'm extremely concerned about our national security and i'm deeply troubled that our intelligence community will be prevented from doing the job they need to do to protect americans by this bill for that reason i strongly rhys oppose the restore act as it will only further tie the hands of our intelligence community if this bill passes congress would depart from the recommendations of the nine eleven commission by making it more difficult and cumbersome to gather intelligence on islamic terrorists are most important job here is to provide the tools to those charged with protecting our nation and keeping us safe from those threats and the last six years we've been kiff safe in this country because we've had a sharp edge on the tools that we've been using to peel back the layers of secrecy on terrorists and terrorist organizations this bill requires a court order together communications when a foreign terrorist in a foreign country tries to contact somebody in the united states hundred seventy eight from president carter to president clinton there was never a concern yet now after we've had attacks on our u s soil and we're well aware that there are terrorist cells in our homeland the democrats want to prevent the intelligence community from intercepting communications of foreign terrorists to my knowledge no violation of civil rights has occurred in pfizer process however as this bill is written the democrats have opened the door for alarming violations of civil liberties by requiring the intelligence community to compile database reports on the identities of u s citizens that have inadvertent been accumulated in the process of gathering information as the washington times noted this morning apparently pandering to the left wing blo and the a c l u is a higher priority than the safety of americans and even american g i s fighting al qaeda normally under current guidelines the intelligence community blacks out all these names and they never get distributed anywhere they're just simply eliminated from the database but now under this bill we see the democrats requiring a list be sent to congress and we all know that we've had leaks here in congress you would think the a c l u would be opposed not only to compiling such ilish but distributing it to congress we've had leaks related to the way we collect information on individuals for the electronic conversation we've had leaks about how we have e mails that have been reviewed by terrorist websites we've had leaks that have caused our allies in europe to no longer cooperate when it comes to tracking terrorist financing for us to give this type of information to congress when almost certainly guarantee a leak and a violation of the civil liberties of those individuals who are inadvertently picked up in the process of trying to find terrorists within working within our country trying to do harm this is a bad bill it goes back and doles the tools this edge that we've been using to keep the country safe if it's passed and it becomes law i would fear for the safety of this country because doling the tools that have kept  commend mr hastings we have worked on many issues of which we have greed strongly in the betterment of national security couldn't more strongly disagree with this bill and where we're going today as one of the very few people on this floor that's actually gone out and develop sources and develop the leads that you possibly need to develop probable cause as a former f b i agent to either bug or intercept phones offices or other privileged communications between americans i can tell you the long and arduous process it takes to develop that to go to the judge and say your honor i do believe that these people are engaged in criminal activities and here's why and it takes months and months and months so let me tell you what this bill does today that so disturbing non united states citizens who are insurgents in iraq has building i e d s that our troops are trying to intercept electronically are now given more rights to privacy than we do for gamble or the general gambling operations developed under criminal code in the united states of america that my friends is true incidental communications you don't have to go back to the judge you continue to listen but what we've done is we've set a standard that every time they want to go overseas and intercept these folks the standard of the bar is set so high they have to go get a court order they have to get a warrant and it takes months this isn't about hollywood this isn't about bauer it's about real people have to developing probable cause in accordance with the law of the united state ace and what you said is that that insurgent in iraq has more privacy rights than any criminal any united states citizen under the criminal  code the united states of america that's what you've done with this bill oh yes sir it is read the language and understand what it takes for them to go through the process to develop probable cause this is the confusion that led to the delay that may have cost the lives of united states soldiers and we all know the example of which we're talking about this bill encourages that confusion and that standard to give foreign terrorists in a foreign land more privacy rights than a united states citizens under the criminal code here it's wrong we often say listen to the intelligence community listen to our commanders on the ground i implore you to do just that they oppose this bill because it makes it harder for them to go after foreign terrorists in foreign lands plotting to kill either u s soldiers or even attacks against our homeland or our allies this bill does all of those things i don't ever doubt the intention of my friends but words matter in the legal code and when you stand before that judge believe me there is no agent that believes there jack bauer and going to fudge a little bit and what the constitution asks and tells them they must do they're going to err on the side of the united states constitution every time and for those who don't they deserve to go to jail and we do prosecute those occasionally but what you're saying is we're going to create this whole system for foreign terrorists to give them more rights in the privacy of the u s citizens i strongly urge in the rejection of this bill let's go back to the table and know that they're united states citizens you know one new york i think my colleague and as a former prosecutor for thirteen years i have stood before a judge many times and made application for warrants in a number of different occasions and frankly i certainly respect this position but he is just not correct on this this legislation not only lives our country the ability to do what needs to be done to protect us but more importantly in texas recognized the two minutes thank you the speaker once again we've heard from across the aisle this this is not true that we're saying you'll have to get warrants for foreign to foreign but because the bill says in section two way gee you don't have to get a court order if it's from between persons not us is not located in the united states the problem is when you look at to be and you look at three in section four it says if you can't be sure and you're risking a felony if you're not if you can't make sure that they may not call somewhere in the united states you've got to get a court order that's the bottom line that's what admiral mcconnell testified and i realize some people on the other side might think he's suspect because he was the national security adviser under the clinton administration for several years but i think he's a very credible source and  as a former judge in chief justice i realize we've got lawyers in here but i'm telling you when the language says if there might be a call to the united states or to an american you're got to get a court order then you're going to have to get him in virtually every time but we keep hearing no no no well that's covered once again we're told something is covered when again it is nothing but a hospital gown coverage you are exposed in areas you don't want to exposed and that's what the country's looking at now it also requires the d n i and the agency to jointly petition oh and there is great comfort in this bill it says the judge once they finally get the papers filed we'll have to rule in fifteen days we get a soldier kidnapped or you have some sensitive situation and maybe it's an emergency maybe it's not but you can't take a chance a billion guilty of a felony you're going to have to follow through and get a court order that's what the the and i says and that's what needs to be done now the main protection here is not for american citizens in general it's were foreign terrorists that can be assured because it i have thirty more seconds because gentlemen fifteen seconds and then fifteen but the bottom line is tell your american friends who are getting calls from foreign terrorists in foreign countries what this statute does it gives no protection to terrorists it gives protections only to americans and it keeps us safe and it gives us the protections that are guaranteed us under the constitution thank you and i reserve the balance of my time for bill here at issue the so called restore act undermines the existing structure that we put in place to reform five only three months ago in the midst of a war any changes to the way that our intelligence community operates should be understood as a somber and delicate undertaking that requires great care our national security hangs in the balance we cannot afford to get this wrong mr speaker my imminent aim to deal with a seriously flawed provision of the restore act it will do great damage to the civil liberties of the protections of americans my amendment would have stricken section eleven of the bill that directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to jointly maintain a record keeping system of u s persons whose communications are intercepted mr speaker this would amount to a big government database that would have individuals identity attached in every practical way there is simply no way to have a database like this that does not attach individual identities to verify the process the democrats maintain that the identity is not attached but this is an impractical rebuttal mr speaker the proposal is not only misguided it attempts  protect american civil liberties and only undermines them further and we have to understand that these identities would be attached even if they have no connection to spare spying or terrorism and the bottom line is this mr speaker this war on terrorism is ultimately fought in the area of intelligence if we knew where every terrorist was tonight in sixty days this war would be over and if we tie those people's hands who are fighting to protect this country with this restore act by the majority i believe that we will someday revisit this issue mr speaker because when a terrible tragedy comes on this country it will transform this debate in the most profound way and we need to be very very careful we need to understand that what we're doing here is a vital importance to future generations and i yield back no manuals back and the men from new york continue to reserve my time young reserve joan from washington mr speaker i have the i know my my friend i would object to that objection after mr speaker i wonder then if i can inquire of my friend since he has more time if if maybe he would yield me at least enough time so i can close on on my side and i'd ask my friend from new york if york will continue i'll continue reserve my time i don't from washington jonah washington there's a speaker does gentleman have i asked my friend from new york if he is has any more speakers we are meeting we are waiting on one more speaker and i reserve my time  thank you sir we have heard so much today from the other side about the fear that they have that this provision will somehow put americans at risk and i think it's very clear that what this fight is a bill does is protect america give our intelligence community the ability to do the kind of things it needs to do while at the same time protecting our civil rights i think it was benjamin franklin once said that any country who gives up its liberty for security deserve neither and will end up losing both and i think clearly this bill takes that into consideration this bill clearly provides for security for our country it clearly provides our intelligence community with the ability to obtain information that it needs  and use that and analyze it in a way that keeps americans safe to prevent another nine eleven activity at the same time that this bill also protects americans rights  gives us the ability to prevent wiretapping of americans here in this country we're not talking about foreign to foreign they can do that they have done that in the past and they will continue to do that this clearly deals g mr speaker there are there are a number of issues the have been brought up by the other side regarding the this bill first of all it's important to keep in mind that what we're trying to do with this legislation is to carefully balance writing the tools to the intelligence professionals that are charged with keeping us safe in this country and we in this legislation does that regardless of what comments the other side has made secondly and most importantly we have to balance it with protecting the civil rights of our of our citizens as we talk about protecting this country we have to keep in mind that this country was founded on the principle of the rule of law the rule of law protects its citizens under the pretty i will not deal under the protect america act as we have seen over the course of the last few weeks many many concerns have been raised about the authorities that have been given to the government authorities that would render our citizens not being able to protect and be secure in our homes and our possessions the protect america act has given so many authorities that people are not safe and secure in their own homes the government can go in there and search their computers search their are residences and search literally every possession that americans have this legislation corrects those mr speaker i yield myself the balance of the time today mr speaker i will be asking my colleagues to vote no on the previous question so that i can amend the rule to allow for a substitute amendment to be offered by mr hoekstra of michigan or mr smith of texas this will give the house an opportunity to consider additional views that were denied denied with this close rule in the rules committee last night and mr speaker and september twenty eighth two thousand and six we had a debate on this issue last year and i like to quote a member what he said on the house floor and i quote you beat with rule making that which you know you cannot beat with reason and he goes on to say i know that what you say do as we say not as we do for today that they are the people's house democracy has been  by those who commanded to others i have said it before the way the majority runs the house is shameful it is undemocratic it happens every single day that we have a closed rule and quote the speaker was my good friend from florida mr hastings and so with that this new speaker i ask unanimous consent to have the text of the amendment in extraneous material inserted into the record trier to the vote on the previous question without objection and i urge my colleagues to oppose the previous question and the close rule and you'll back to balance my time just watching yells back it's time to joan from new york thank you ms picker i yield one minute to the distinguish bring this important legislation to the floor i commend chairman ryan yes and chairman conyers for their leadership in protecting and defending the american people by putting forth the best way to collect intelligence under the law  speaker as we say over and over again here and each one of us who comes to serve in this body indeed everyone who serves our country takes an oath of office to protect and defend the constitution of the united states it's a thrill to take that oath of office as we protect and defend the american people in the preamble it says to form a more perfect union mr jackson's been a champion on that provide for the common defense in that preamble that's a high priority for us we have a responsibility to protect the american people that makes everything else possible in our community and in our society but as we protect and defend the american people are oath of office calls upon us to protect and defend the constitution and our civil liberties the legislation befor today does just that it's about protecting the american people from terrorism and other national security threats i for a long time observed on the intelligence committee both as a member of the ranking member and also ex officio and as leader and now as speaker i believe the role of very firmly in the role that in intelligence gathering plays in protecting the american people we want to prevent war we want to protect harm to our forces force protection as very very high priority for us protective our protection of our forces and we must now meet this horrible challenge of fighting terrorism in the world it has been a challenge for some time in order to do that we have to have the laws in place in order to  to collect that intelligence under the law and that is what this legislation does first it to fit it helps us defend our country against terrorism and other threats secondly it protects the privacy of the american people which is important to them and a responsibility for us and third this legislation re stores a system of checks and balances and how we protect and defend our country and provides for rigorous oversight by congress of this collection in the one nine hundred seventy s when the feis a law was passed it was conceded that congress had a role in determining how intelligence was conducted how the executive branch conducted the collection of intelligence the executive branch congress making laws to govern that two houses two branches of government and in the feis a bill that was passed at that time the role of the third branch of government was defined the feis a court that system of checks and balances has served our country well but the advance of technology additional challenges  arose and this legislation meets those challenges any suggestion to the contrary are simply not factual what the director of national intelligence has asked for in terms of collection he has received in this legislation and he has received it under the law under the law the legislation restores checks and balances in other ways it rejects groundless claims of inherent executive authority under that we might as well just crown the president king and just say he has access to any information in our country out and he may collect that outside the law and this legislation really reiterate that the law inactive by congress fife the foreign intelligence surveillance act is the exclusive means for conducting electronic surveillance to gather foreign intelligence the principle of exclusivity is a very very important principle and it is enshrined in this legislation the bill also sunsets by december thirty first two thousand and nine at the same time the patriot act sunset so the next administration and another congress can review whether the new program appropriately meets national security and civil liberty objectives this bill does not provide immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the president's warrant less surveillance program as i have said many times you can't even consider such relief unless we know what people are asking for immunity from congress is not a rubber stamp we are a co equal branch of government we have a right to know what the conduct the administration wants us to immunize against working side by side the intelligence committee and the judiciary committee has produced an excellent bill it has been heralded so by those organizations whose organized purpose is to protect our civil liberties in light of our responsibility to our national security which has been heralded by those who follow and held as a value the privacy of the american people it has been heralded by those who understand that one of our first responsibilities is to provide for the common defense our founders understood it well the balance that needed to be struck between security and liberty they spoke eloquently to it in their speeches they enshrined it in the constitution let us protect the american people under the law please my colleagues support this very important as for their strong leadership in this and in bringing this bill to the floor having said that i urge a yes vote on the previous question on the rule i yield back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the resolution