Earl Blumenauer: “amidst the debate nationally about the tracking of calls of millions of Americans, questions about bureaucratic leaks…”

“amidst the debate nationally about the tracking of calls of millions of Americans, questions about bureaucratic leaks here on Capitol Hill, and evidence that we are awash in information, the FBI approached an employee in Portland City Hall last week to solicit her to spy on activities there. Mr. Speaker, the FBI has had a long and shameful history of spying on American citizens, information that Director J. Edgar Hoover used literally to blackmail people in government and treated Martin Luther king shamefully. It prompted some of my conservative friends to call for ripping his name off the FBI headquarters. It is time for the FBI to get its priorities straight. Remember, this is the institution that couldn't deal with information it had before 9/ 11 about potential airplane hijackers. If evidence of wrongdoing is in place, jump on it, but don't establish a spy network trolling for information. Let us keep the FBI on its important work. The American public deserves it. ____________________”