Representative Heather Wilson: “In fact, the Senate bill for privacy protections for Americans are stronger than the Protect America Act and stronger…”

“In fact, the Senate bill for privacy protections for Americans are stronger than the Protect America Act and stronger than current law under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act because the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act really focused on technology. It was technology specific and assumed that things that were on a wire were local calls in the United States. Well, we have said that's changed. The bill that we want to bring up and pass in the House has very strict protections for Americans wherever they are and for anyone reasonably believed to be in the United States. Now, there are some folks who think if somebody's not a citizen or if they are here in the country illegally, you should be able to listen to them. This bill doesn't even authorize that. It has very strict protections for Americans in the United States or for Americans wherever they happen to be. Now, we collect intelligence. We spy overseas. When I was an officer stationed overseas, one of my jobs at one post was to negotiate with the Soviets back when the Soviets existed. We knew who the KGB guy was in their delegation. If we happened to intercept his report back to Moscow and it mentioned me, there were already procedures in place to mask or so-called minimize the existence of an American that we may have picked up intelligence overseas. This law actually strengthens that.”