The Public Record
Rand Paul is an American politician and physician currently serving as the junior United States senator from Kentucky, a position he has held since January 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is known for his strong libertarian views, advocating for limited government and individual liberties. Throughout his tenure, Paul has focused on issues such as healthcare reform, fiscal responsibility, and civil liberties, often challenging both Republican and Democratic leadership on various policies.
Mr. President, tonight begins the process of ending bulk collection. The bill will ultimately pass. We always look for silver linings. I think the bill may be replacing one form of bulk collection with another, but the government, after…
Mr. President, how much time remains on the clock for the Republican side? Mr. McCAIN. I would ask the Senator from Indiana if he has seen--
Mr. President, how much time is remaining? Mr. McCAIN. I ask for the regular order. The PRESIDING OFFICER. I think the Chair has made very clear that the Senator from Indiana has the floor.
Mr. President, my understanding is there is still 5 minutes remaining on the opposition side. I request that time. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Mr. McCAIN. I object.
Mr. President, how can we have an objection when we already have a consent agreement that says we have 30 minutes of equally divided time and you still have 5 minutes remaining on the opposite side? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time was…
Mr. President, the time could not have been divided equally, because apparently somebody must have given one side more time than the other. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The 5 minutes of time that was allotted to the Democratic side was unused…
Mr. President, I was here for 30 minutes of the Republican side speaking. I sat at my seat for 30 minutes. It was not 23 minutes of equally divided time. Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, regular order--obviously people don't know the rules of…
Mr. President, let us be very clear about why we are here this evening. We are here this evening because this is an important debate. This is a debate over the Bill of Rights. This is a debate over the Fourth Amendment. This is a debate…
Mr. President, reserving the right to object, one of the promises that was given when the PATRIOT Act was originally passed was that, in exchange for allowing a less than constitutional standard, we would only use the actions against…
Terrorists and against foreigners. We found that 99 percent of the time, section 213 is used for domestic crime. I believe that no section of the PATRIOT Act should be passed unless our targets are terrorists--not Americans.
I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last week, I proposed giving the Intelligence Committee the time it would need to work toward the kind of bipartisan legislative compromise Americans…
My concern is that under the new program, the records will still be sucked up into NSA computers, but the computers will be at the phone company, not in Utah. So the question is, Will it be a distinction without a difference? The question…
Politicians like Rand Paul
