Rob Bishop: “I am ready to close whenever you are. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I urge my…”

“I am ready to close whenever you are. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I urge my colleagues to oppose this rule for all of the reasons I stated earlier, but, Mr. Speaker, I want to close with one final thought: this intelligence bill includes several provisions regarding the use of contractors, security clearance reform, strengthening investigations by the inspector general, and so on. We need to recognize that these reforms were not initiated by us. They are a result of the massive release of leaked information that brought very serious matters about actual and potential abuses by our intelligence agencies on how they monitor and maintain data on ordinary law-abiding citizens. This leaked information caused alarm throughout our society, by our constituents, by our press, and by Members of Congress--and rightfully so. It caused alarm among some of our closest international allies--and rightfully so. So while we may hold different views about the individual who confiscated and leaked the information, let us all recognize that none of the NSA and FISA reforms recently passed by this House--and none of the reforms included in this bill--would have happened if that information had not been leaked because we would not have known about the abuses being carried on in our name by various intelligence agencies. Mr.…”