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Floor Statements

Floor Statement on H.R. 3356, the Improving Foreign Intelligence Surveillance to Defend the Nation and the Constitution Act of 2007

Madam Speaker, we were told by the administration, by the Director of National Intelligence, a couple of weeks ago that they needed two things: They needed to clarify that we didn't need a court order for a foreign-to-foreign communications. This bill does it. They needed an assurance that telecommunications companies would be compelled to assist in gathering of national security information under this bill. This bill contains it.


Yesterday, we were told they needed three more things: They needed that we should deal with not just relating to terrorism but to matters relating to our foreign intelligence. It's in this bill. We were told we should eliminate the requirement that the FISA Court adjudicate our recurring communications to the U.S. from foreign targets would be handled. It's in this bill. We were told that we should allow for foreign targets to be added to the basket warrant after the warrant was approved. It's in this bill.


The DNI, Admiral McConnell, said that this bill would significantly enhance America's security until he spoke to the White House, and now he changes politically, and he says we need more. This is the bill that gives them everything they said they needed. It's the bill we should pass to protect our civil liberties, and we should go no further.

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