Political Quotes

“On May 5, 2014, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Goodlatte announced that he had agreed with Representatives Sensenbrenner and Conyers on a new version of the USA FREEDOM Act. On May 7, 2014, the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to report this revised USA FREEDOM Act. The next day, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence convened a markup to consider the version of the bill reported by the House Judiciary Committee and voted unanimously to report the bill to the full House. Following action by the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, further changes to the text of the reported bill were considered and a substitute amendment to the USA FREEDOM Act was unveiled on May 20, 2014, when the House Rules Committee adopted a rule for floor consideration. Following the release of the substitute amendment, some concerns were raised that the substitute amendment did not effectively prohibit bulk collection, even though that was clearly its intent. On May 22, 2014, the House of Representatives passed the amended version of the USA FREEDOM Act by a vote of 303 to 121. Many of those who voted no on the bill did so because they were concerned that its reforms did not go far enough. After the House passed its version of the USA FREEDOM Act, Senator Leahy and I worked hard to build on that legislation. Senator Leahy, can you talk about what led to the USA FREEDOM Act of 2014, S. 2685?”