Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), a veteran Member of the House Judiciary Committee, delivered a statement on the House floor on the USA Freedom Act.

“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 the past several years,” said Rep. Nadler. “The USA Freedom Act on the floor today certainly does not give us everything we want or need. 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 may mean no reform at all, thus leaving in place the framework that led to the dragnet surveillance of our citizens.”

The following is the full text of Congressman Nadler’s floor statement (as prepared for delivery):

            “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 the past several 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 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 terror 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’ this broadly, other reforms in the bill ensure that Congress and the American people would know about it immediately.

            “These changes are 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 may mean no reform at all, thus leaving in place the framework that led to the dragnet surveillance of our citizens. This bill makes critically important changes that we all should support.  That is why I will vote for it, and I urge all of you to do the same.      

             “With that, I yield back the balance of my time.”

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