Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the gentleman from Virginia, the home of my alma mater, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the…”

“I thank the gentleman from Virginia, the home of my alma mater, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the gentleman from Connecticut, also the home of my alma mater. To be able to find collegiality in a very important question for the American people is very much a statement that should be made. This amendment does something Congress should have done 7 years ago, as I have indicated, prohibiting the government from resuming ``abouts'' collection, a form of section 702 surveillance that poses a unique risk to Americans. It is also very disturbing, Mr. Chair, because most Americans would scratch their heads and wonder why is this relevant to the immediate investigation. ``Abouts'' collection is a collection of communications that are neither to nor from an approved target of surveillance under 702, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FISA, but merely contain information relating to that target. That means that you become a target because it happened to be sitting around you or it happened to be going to you or from you. In the past, ``abouts'' collections focused on collecting communications that include a target's email or phone, address, Twitter handle, or something like that, but in theory ``abouts'' collection could be used to collect emails that merely mention a person who is a target of 702 surveillance.…”