Rob Bishop: “Switching gears to the intelligence reauthorization measure, every Member of the House takes seriously our…”

“Switching gears to the intelligence reauthorization measure, every Member of the House takes seriously our responsibility to preserve individual liberty and freedoms under the Constitution. We also have a constitutional obligation to provide for the common defense, because without a strong national defense, which includes the indispensable work of the defense intelligence agencies, personal freedoms are also at risk. The question is achieving and maintaining a balance in deciding how to best preserve inalienable constitutional rights against possible incursions by technologists, whether inadvertent or intentional, as our Nation deals with the very real threats both at home and abroad. Technology gives us wonderful tools, but it can also be a fertile ground for abuse of privacy. We have a responsibility as Members of Congress to exercise oversight in U.S. intelligence agencies, and that can be difficult since much cannot be debated in open forums with any degree of specificity without bringing great harm to the national security. That is why we have the expertise of standing committees. Not only do they understand these issues, it saves time by allocating the proper amount of time to the discussion of these issues in advance. And from the testimony received in the Rules Committee, I believe that Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger have demonstrated a strong bipartisan commitment on this issue.…”