Date: 2012-09-12
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Speaker. I am delighted to join the chairman of the full committee and the ranking member of the full committee in this vigorous debate on the Constitution. I am also delighted that the ranking member has indicated. by his reference to the previous speaker. that this is a bipartisan challenge and question about the reauthorization. This does not have a partisan place. It does have a place in the Constitution. As I do this. might I take just a moment. Mr. Chairman and Mr. Ranking Member. just to acknowledge the loss of our Americans who fell in LibyaAmbassador Stevens and those who were securing him. It is a recognition that we live in a difficult world. but one of the distinctive aspects of America is that we live in a free country. that we are willing to accept the distinctions and differences of all people and that we respect the privacy and the Fourth Amendment. So I might refresh my fellow colleagues as to what FISA does from the very beginning. It is electronic surveillance. physical searches. the installation and use of pen registers and trapandtrace devices. and demands for the production of physical items. Although FISA is designed for intelligence gathering and not for the collection of criminal evidence. the law applies to activity to which a Fourth Amendment warrant requirement would apply if they were conducted in a criminal investigation. Members need to understand there are questions of the Fourth Amendment right here. So what those of us who have a concern on this reauthorization are asking for has simple premise: We want to join with Congressman CONYERS and his simple amendment that allows for greater congressional oversight and the protection of the Fourth Amendment as it relates to Americans by shortening the reauthorization to 2015 from 2017. It intrudes the Congress properly in oversight. In addition. there should be more transparency in the surveillance program. such as requiring the creation of unclassified versions of the intelligence assessments of the surveillance program. requiring the creation of unclassified summaries. I introduced a simple amendment. We all have respect for the Inspector Generals office. That is one independent force of our agencies that most Members of Congress will not challenge. My amendment would require a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and the Inspector General of the intelligence community on the implementation of the surveillance program under the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Now. let me try to find out what the horrifically liberal groups are that are concerned about this. What about the American Library Association? the Association of Research Libraries? the very wellrespected Brennan Center for Justice? the Center for Democracy & Technology? the OpenTheGovernment .org? What we are simply saying todayand we hope our colleagues will listen on both sides of the aisleis that. yes. we can reauthorize this legislation but that. no. we cannot abdicate the questions of congressional oversight. Today. we had a hearing on the abuse of power. The only issue in abuse of power is whether or not we respect the three branches of government. That is the argument we are making today. Do you respect the three branches of governmentthe peoples House. who represent the people. who by themselves cannot defend themselves against this extensive reauthorization?