Dianne Feinstein: “I rise today as a 12-year member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a 5-year member of the Senate Intelligence…”

“I rise today as a 12-year member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a 5-year member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. I do so indeed with a very heavy heart. I have had, until now, great confidence in America's intelligence activities. I have assured people time and time again that what happens at home has always been conducted in accordance with the law. I played a role in the PATRIOT Act. I moved one of the critical amendments having to do with the wall and the FISA court. Today's allegations as written in the New York Times really question whether this is in fact true. I read it with a heavy heart, yet without knowing the full story. Let me be clear. Domestic intelligence collection is governed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. This law sets out a careful set of checks and balances that are designed to ensure that domestic intelligence collection is conducted in accordance with the Constitution, under the supervision of judges and with accountability to the Congress of the United States. Specifically, FISA allows the Government to wiretap phones or to open packages, but only with a showing to a special court--the FISA court-- and after meeting a legal standard that requires that the effort is based on probable cause to believe the target is an agent of a foreign power. Let me cite two sources. The first is a 1978 report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.…”