Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, on June 19, 2014, the House of Representatives passed a historic amendment to the fiscal year 2015 Department of Defense Appropriations Act. The amendment was offered by myself and Ms. Lofgren, along with several of our House colleagues. Our amendment blocks government bureaucrats from performing backdoor warrantless searches of the private email content and telephone calls of U.S. citizens. The amendment also prohibits the NSA and CIA from requiring technology companies to place backdoors in their products. Our amendment passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan and veto-proof majority of 293-123. Now, some of those who did not vote for the amendment told me that they thought the proper place for this amendment was in the NDAA, not in an appropriations act, and I tend to agree with them. I would like to see that in the NDAA, but our only opportunity was to put it into the appropriations bill. There has been some discussion, unfortunately, of recent talk, if you will, that this amendment will be stripped from the omnibus. If that is the case, I think it does belong in the NDAA this year because this is the bill that authorizes these programs that we have heard so much about. Americans were horrified to learn that the government was spying on them without even bothering to get a warrant, and the overwhelming number of Members who voted in favor of the Massie-Lofgren amendment did so because they listened to their constituents.…”