Darrell Issa: “Government should protect our liberties, not violate them. Individuals and businesses alike must be able to trust their…”

“Government should protect our liberties, not violate them. Individuals and businesses alike must be able to trust their government to work for them--not spy on them. The NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records threatens our constitutional liberties. We have the opportunity to pass legislation that both limits the reach of the NSA and provides the transparency to lawmakers and the American people necessary to prevent abusive practices from happening again. We have the opportunity to begin to restore the trust of the American people. The original and Committee-passed versions of the USA FREEDOM Act struck a careful balance between our liberty and our security, providing the reforms necessary to restore trust. I was proud to be an original co-sponsor of this bill, and commend Representative Jim Sensenbrenner and Chairman Bob Goodlatte for their work to protect our civil liberties. Unfortunately, the floor-version of the USA FREEDOM Act falls short of our goal. This legislation would still allow for the mass collection of information. The Committee-passed legislation required court orders to be based on ``specific-selection terms''--which was defined as a ``person, entity or account.'' The floor version broadens the scope of ``specific-selection term'' by defining it as a ``discrete term.'' This ambiguous legal phrase does not have defined limitations, and could capture millions of individuals' information.…”