All Quotes

Thank you, Ranking Member Hatch. I would like to start by making three basic points.

Your prepared testimony gave the example about regulations that tripled the cost of asthma inhalers.

There are very different perspectives on the costs and benefits of regulation.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The excessive costs that result from overregulatory activities we can dent and maybe save the taxpayers a lot of money.

What can we do to protect the American people without costing an arm and a leg so that they do not have jobs?

I think at some point when you collect that much data on that many people--whether it is that much data on one person, that might create some problem.

I do think it is worth discussing publicly, and I think it is also something that we need to consider from a constitutional standpoint.

We were unable to speak about this publicly because we have secret procedures being undertaken pursuant to secret law.

Yet regardless of how difficult it might be to define in the abstract what relevance is, don't you think we have left the station of relevance long before we get to the point of collecting metadata on potentially 300 million Americans?

I assure you, as a recovering lawyer myself, there is no context in civil discovery or otherwise in which one may define 'relevance' broadly enough to take in information regarding each and every single American who owns a telephone.

I do not want the Government having that information. It is not the Government's information.

As I understand it, the NSA's collection of metadata... is accomplished pursuant to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act.

Are there ways of keeping that leverage in check? For each leverage point, is there a counterpoint?

There are those who say that this is more of a theoretical problem than a real one.

There has to be some ability to say, no, you cannot just say, I am unwilling to license on any terms, let alone fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.

In the small town of Alpine, Utah, where I live, we speak of little else.

But once that commitment is made, you have got to stick with it.