On the recordMay 20, 2015
I think the Senator from Utah asked a great question, and I think he framed the debate over the Fourth Amendment very well. I think if we asked to put the bill on the floor at this hour, we may not be able to find anybody awake to ask permission to have the bill this evening. We haven't been able to locate anyone to get the bill this evening, so I am afraid we will have to say no. But we have been asking for a full and open debate. Your solution, as well as mine, as well as Wyden's, as well as other's, is to have a full debate on the floor for this. There were a couple of things you said that I thought were particularly worth commenting on. People say that because there is no evidence that the program is being abused, there is no evidence that we are searching the records of certain people of certain race or religion or abusing people for some reason, that is proof somehow that no abuse is occurring. But I agree with you that the collection alone is an abuse in and of itself. To me, the basic point and the biggest part of the point is that what we are dealing with is something that is a generalized warrant. There is nothing specific about collecting all of the records from all Americans all of the time. There is nothing specific about the name ``Verizon.'' I tell people that I don't know anybody named Mr. Verizon. So that can't be a specific individualized warrant. That is a general warrant.…
