John Cornyn: “I am glad I was on the floor to hear the distinguished Senator from Illinois's comments about section 702 of the Foreign…”

“I am glad I was on the floor to hear the distinguished Senator from Illinois's comments about section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This is perhaps the most important law that most Americans have never heard of before, but here we are debating that. The House having passed a bill and sent it over to us, it is our responsibility now to consider that bill. We all want to protect the privacy and constitutional rights of American citizens. That is nonnegotiable. I agree with the Senator on that point, and I think we all should agree. But the fact of the matter is, the House bill is a reform bill. It is not section 702 as it currently operates. This provides numerous guardrails, accountability measures, and other measures that I believe will limit, if not eliminate, the opportunity to abuse this authority, to the detriment of American citizens; rather, I believe this law must be passed in order to protect those same people. It is really important for the American people to understand that section 702 is only available against foreigners overseas--only foreigners overseas. If you want to get access to any information even on a foreigner here in the United States or an American citizen or a legal permanent resident, you have to go to court and do what the Senator says, and I certainly support that, which is to show probable cause that a crime has been committed.…”