Political Quotes

“I appreciated hearing from our colleague, who is an original cosponsor of the first FISA bill, and to learn about the negotiations which went on then. But I was a little puzzled to hear how this bill-- this bill, which includes significantly more protections for Americans' civil liberties and constitutional rights--somehow goes back on the original FISA. The original FISA required a court review of targeting of U.S. persons. We have gone far beyond that in this bill. As a matter of fact, the Protect America Act, which he decried, contained all of the protections that were in the original FISA bill. Now, we have, on a bipartisan basis--I keep emphasizing that the Intelligence Committee, on a bipartisan basis, after being fully briefed--fully briefed--by several elements of the intelligence community--and we asked them questions. We had briefings. We went to the NSA to see how it worked. We went through all of these ideas with them. They said: We understand your objective. Here is how to accomplish it. I think we have prepared a very good bill that by any fair reading-- any fair reading--will extend the protections beyond what the original FISA, and even the Protect America Act, had for the surveillance, electronic surveillance of anybody either in the United States or a U.S.…”