Sheila Jackson Lee: “Let me thank Mr. Thompson and Mr. McCaul for their leadership and Mr. Ratcliffe and Mr. Richmond for their leadership…”

“Let me thank Mr. Thompson and Mr. McCaul for their leadership and Mr. Ratcliffe and Mr. Richmond for their leadership and for the importance of this legislation on the floor today and--this is something that I have often said--for the importance of the Department of Homeland Security's being the front armor, if you will, for domestic security, and this is a very important component of domestic security. The Jackson Lee-Polis amendment states that not later than 60 months after the date of this act the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate an assessment on the impact of privacy and civil liberties, limited to the work of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. The public benefit of this amendment is that it will provide public assurance from a reliable and trustworthy source that their privacy and civil liberties are not being compromised. Whether it is the PATRIOT Act or the USA FREEDOM Act that is now proposed, the American people understand their security, but they understand their privacy and their civil liberties. The intent of this report is to provide Congress with information regarding the effectiveness of protecting the privacy of Americans.…”