Steven Holt: “I thank my friend. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rule which covers, in part, the Intelligence authorization…”

“I thank my friend. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rule which covers, in part, the Intelligence authorization debate. I want to address not what the bill contains, but what it does not. It does not contain any prohibition on the executive branch using drones to target American citizens for death. I offered a commonsense proposal to address this matter, but the Rules Committee declined to allow it to come to the floor for a vote. Also missing from this bill is any kind of protection for national security whistleblowers who seek to report waste, fraud, abuse, or criminal conduct to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. I offered a proposal to address that problem, expanding on language from a whistleblower provision that passed this House in 2002 as part of the bill creating the Homeland Security Department--a proposal that likewise was blocked from being considered on the floor. Finally, among other things, this bill contains no provision to tell Americans in simple raw numbers how many Americans have had our private communications intercepted by the government over the past several years. Just the number is all we were asking for. That proposal as well was blocked from floor consideration. The Intelligence authorization bill should never serve simply as a rubber stamp for funding and programs that the intelligence community wishes.…”