Lamar Smith: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, America and its allies continue to face national security…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, America and its allies continue to face national security threats from foreign nations, spies, and terrorist organizations. Our national security agencies must be able to conduct surveillance of foreign terrorists and others so we can stop them before they disable our defenses, carry out a plot against our country, or kill innocent Americans. In 1978, Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to provide procedures for the domestic collection of foreign intelligence. To protect Americans' civil liberties, FISA created Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts comprised of sitting Federal court judges. {time} 1520 If the government needs to collect domestic information for national security purposes, it must first request permission from a FISA judge. This is limited to domestic information. FISA was never intended to apply to the collection of information from non-U.S. persons in foreign countries. But advances in technology over the last 40 years have changed how overseas communications are transmitted. In 2006, then-Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell, stated that the intelligence community was not collecting approximately two-thirds of the foreign intelligence information that it collected prior to legal interpretations that required the government to obtain individualized FISA court orders for overseas surveillance.…”