Russ Feingold: “As the Senator well knows, on the floor we passed this bill by unanimous consent, without debate, but I and others…”

“As the Senator well knows, on the floor we passed this bill by unanimous consent, without debate, but I and others raised our concerns in the Judiciary Committee. The Senator well knows I was not pleased with the outcome on this provision in the Senate. I fought hard to get as many changes as possible, but we did not get the changes we needed with regard to national security letters, and the conference report failed to improve this provision as it should have done. The Senator is correct, as I understand it, that the Senate version did not change much of existing law in this area, and the conference report is essentially the same. The conference report did not include the national security letter standard that a bipartisan group sought, three Democrats and three Republicans, as well as other cosponsors of the SAFE Act, which is that the Government can only obtain records that pertain to a terrorist and spy. In addition, in answer to the Senator's question, the judicial review of the NSL gag rule in the conference report also is inadequate. In the SAFE Act, we included meaningful judicial review of national security letters and the NSL gag rule. Under the Senate version, there is judicial review of national security letters and gag rule, but there again, disappointedly, even the Senate version of the bill failed to create a standard that was realistic. It created a standard for the gag rule that would be virtually impossible to meet.…”