Mike Conaway: “I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I rise in strong support of the rule and the underlying legislation that is…”

“I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I rise in strong support of the rule and the underlying legislation that is before us this afternoon. I also want to congratulate my colleague from Florida. I agree wholeheartedly with his reasons why this is important. He walked through those very eloquently. I'd like to speak quickly as to what this bill does not do. It does not create a government surveillance program. It does not give the government the authority to monitor private networks or communications like email or other activities. And it is strictly voluntary. It does not create a mandate on the private sector that they participate. In fact, these activities, monitoring and surveillance, are specifically excluded from being an activity that would be authorized under this bill. There are four purposes for which this activity can be conducted, and whatever gets done has to fit within one of these four. One is cybersecurity. Two is investigating and prosecuting cybersecurity crimes. Three would be preventing death and physical injury, and four would be protecting minors from physical and psychological harm. So whatever gets done under this bill has to fit within those narrow categories specifically to make that happen. As both speakers have said already, great work has been done in trying to protect the privacy and the civil liberties that all of us have.…”