Political Quotes

“I welcome this opportunity to speak on the floor about the National Security Agency surveillance programs, their effectiveness, and their future. I am proud to be joined by my colleague from Oregon, Senator Wyden, who will comment as well after my remarks. He has been a stalwart leader on these issues, and it has been my honor to join forces with him and to draw attention to this very important discussion President Obama recently welcomed. He called for a public debate on finding the right balance between national security and privacy in the context of NSA's surveillance programs. His call is long overdue, and it is an opportunity we should not squander. As I have said time and time again to Coloradans and as they have said back to me as well, we owe it to the American people to have an open, transparent debate about the limits of the Federal Government's surveillance powers and how we reconcile the need to keep our families safe while still respecting our hard-won constitutional rights to privacy. Although I would have preferred that this debate would have been kicked off by more transparent actions by the White House instead of by unauthorized leaks, we are nonetheless presented with a unique opportunity--an opportunity to finally have an open dialog about the limits of our government's surveillance powers, particularly those relating to the vast dragnet of Americans' phone records under section 215 of the PATRIOT Act.…”