Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the amendment. This amendment would require the Director of National Intelligence to issue a public report within 90 days, assessing the impact of the FISA Amendments Act and its surveillance authorities on the privacy of U.S. persons. That sounds benign, but it is not. The goal of this amendment is to make information public about a very effective intelligence collection program that is currently classified. All of the information has already been made available to the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. It is available to all Members. All they have to do is read it. It is hundreds of pages of material. Senator Wyden has raised a number of issues that all concern the potential for surveillance conducted pursuant to authorities to result in what is called ``incidental collection.'' Section 702 authorizes the executive branch to go to the FISA Court--that is a Federal court, Federal district judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court--and obtain annual approval for the certifications of the Attorney General and the DNI that identify categories of foreign targets. These are what I call a program warrant, to conduct surveillance on non-U.S. persons; in other words, individuals who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents who are located outside the United States. It is possible there can be some incidental collection of communications of or concerning those who are U.S. persons.…”