Representative Heather Wilson: “The key change in the Protect America Act, and also in the Senate bill that is now being blocked here on the floor of…”

“The key change in the Protect America Act, and also in the Senate bill that is now being blocked here on the floor of the House, is to allow American intelligence to listen to foreigners in foreign countries without a warrant, even if the point of access to that communication is a wire here in the United States. That's really the fundamental change. It has very strong privacy protections for Americans. Americans, wherever they may be, whether you're off in Germany on vacation with your family, you're an American, you have protections and rights under our Constitution. Foreigners in foreign countries do not have those rights under our Constitution, and we are seeking to gather information on terrorist targets overseas. So it's foreigners in foreign countries. And it just has to do with touching a wire in the United States to gather that information. And it says if the point of access happens to be a wire in the United States, that doesn't matter. What matters is you reasonably believe they are a foreigner in a foreign country.”