Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, freedom surrendered is rarely reclaimed. Today, we have an opportunity to make progress. After 9/11, the PATRIOT Act passed. One Senator voted ``no.'' Sixty-three Members of the House of Representatives voted ``no.'' Both parties failed with that vote. FISA has been reauthorized, and it never gets a full, clean vote. It is little tranches. In 2020, we ended the business records surveillance program, section 215. The government didn't stop collecting business records; they just stopped doing it in conformance with section 215 of FISA. Section 702 is an important program. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is supposed to stop foreign threats to our country, but there is a reason there is not a domestic surveillance act. It is because there is a Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, and that amendment does not say that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. It says, as an American citizen, you have a right to privacy, that your records cannot be searched without probable cause and a warrant or subpoena. Due process should not be infringed. The Fourth Amendment is probably the most disregarded protection given to us by the Bill of Rights. Our right to privacy is supposed to be defended, and we have this chance today but not a complete chance. We have a bill that people will claim has 56 reforms, and it does. Of those, 45 are from the Intelligence Committee.…”