Jim Sensenbrenner: “I want to thank the House for bringing the USA FREEDOM Act to the floor today. I was the chairman of the Judiciary…”

“I want to thank the House for bringing the USA FREEDOM Act to the floor today. I was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee on September 11, 2001. In the wake of that tragedy, the committee passed the PATRIOT Act with unanimous, bipartisan support. The bill easily passed in both the House and the Senate, and President George W. Bush signed it into law. I believe the PATRIOT Act made America safer by enhancing the government's ability to find and stop terrorist attacks. We were careful to maintain the civil liberties that distinguish us from our enemies. We are here today because the government misapplied the law and upset the balance between privacy and security that we had fought to preserve 13 years ago. In a feat of legal gymnastics, the administration convinced the FISA Court that, because some records in the universe of every phone call Americans made might be relevant to counterterrorism, the entire universe of calls must be relevant. That decision opened the floodgates to a practice of bulk collection that Congress never intended when the PATRIOT Act was passed. {time} 0930 Senator Leahy and I introduced the USA FREEDOM Act to end bulk collection, increase transparency, and to reestablish a proper balance between privacy and security. After months of input and negotiations-- in a historic echo of its vote on the PATRIOT Act--the Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the FREEDOM Act.…”