Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am going to yield in just a moment to Senator Daines, but just so we are clear in terms of my response to the distinguished Senator from Texas, he has--as some have tried to do-- sought to characterize this as kind of a routine kind of matter; that this was a rule of criminal procedure of no great import and without any far-reaching consideration. I can tell you that cyber security experts around the country have spoken out virtually unanimously about the consequences of the government accidentally breaking their computers without telling them. I don't know of anything that is routine about this at all. Under this change, the government can search potentially millions of computers with one single warrant issued by one single judge. And, tragically, there is no difference, in terms of law enforcement access, between the victims of a hack and the perpetrators themselves. So we are talking about clobbering victims twice. First they get clobbered by a hacker and then they could get hurt by the government. The distinguished Senator from Texas seeks to portray this as some kind of far-out kind of matter. Virtually all of the major technology companies in this country have written in opposition to this. Scores of cyber security experts have written in opposition. One of the key points they make is that you don't punish victims twice in America. You wouldn't punish the victims of a tax scam or a Ponzi scheme with a painful audit. That is what can happen here.…”