Steven Holt: “later this week Congress will return to the issue of how best to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In…”

“later this week Congress will return to the issue of how best to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In November in this House of Representatives, we passed a very good bill. We would do well to observe the principles established in that bill. Any final review of domestic surveillance passed by Congress should include court review of executive branch actions. The reason for this requirement is quite simple. Having a legal standard of review provides us both better intelligence and better civil liberty protections for our people. It is simple. It has been demonstrated that when officials must establish before an independent court that they know what they are doing, that they have reason to intercept communications, we get better intelligence. And, of course, that's the point, to have the intelligence to protect the American people from indiscriminate collection and fishing expeditions. Those are not productive. In November, we passed a bill that would do this, the RESTORE Act. That bill guarantees court review of executive branch actions related to surveillance activities. I would commend that bill to this House.”