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“This bill is about the extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That is the act under which we’re able to spy on our adversaries – those individuals who intend to do our nation harm. It’s been a great debate and great discussion among the members. In this body, everyone is in agreement that there have been unbelievable abuses by the FBI of access to foreign intelligence. The underlying bill, of which there’s broad support, punishes the FBI. It criminalizes the FBI’s abuses, limits and restricts the FBI’s access to foreign intelligence, and further puts guardrails to punish the FBI.
“What’s also in agreement here on this House Floor is the protection of American civil liberties. You have to have a warrant, and there is absolute constitutional protection of Americans’ data. There’s no place in the statute where Americans’ data becomes at risk.
“The debate today, though, is not about FISA. It’s not about spying on our adversaries. The debate today is about a warrant requirement in an amendment that has been offered by Andy Biggs and Pramila Jayapal. This amendment, largely drafted by Senator Ron Wyden and co-sponsored by Senator Elizabeth Warren, would, for the first time in history, provide constitutional rights to our adversaries. It would provide constitutional rights to our enemies. No court, no law, has ever, ever come out of this body that would provide constitutional rights to our adversaries.
“We spy on Hezbollah, we spy on Hamas, we spy on the Ayatollah, we spy on the Communist Party of China. This bill provides them constitutional protections to communicate with people in the United States to recruit them for the purposes of being terrorists, for being spies, and for doing espionage.
“The 9/11 perpetrators were in the United States, and they were communicating with Al-Qaeda. At that time, we made a grave mistake in that we were not spying on Al-Qaeda, and we didn’t see whom they were communicating with within the United States. We changed that, and we began to spy on Al-Qaeda, and we got to see the extent to which they were recruiting people in the United States to do us harm.
“If this amendment passes, Al-Qaeda will have full constitutional protections to recruit in the United States, the Chinese Communist Party will have full constitutional protections to recruit in the United States, and there will be no increased protection of constitutional protections for Americans and their data. The only data that would become protected is data that are located in Al-Qaeda’s inbox and the Chinese Communist Party’s inbox.
“Now, how is it that they become protected? This amendment would require that you have to have a warrant to look into Chinese Communist Party data for the recruitment efforts that they are doing within the United States.
“You would have to have evidence of a crime that is occurring in order to get that warrant, which means we’ll be blind. The moment that this becomes law we will be blind and will be unable to look at what Hezbollah is doing in the United States, what Hamas is doing in the United States, and what the Chinese Communist Party is doing in the United States. There are no additional protections in this amendment for Americans. Americans still have full constitutional protection of their own data.
“Let me give an example of how this works under their amendment. We’re spying on Hamas. Two people in the United States send emails to Hamas. One says, ‘Happy Birthday,’ and one says, ‘Thank you for the bomb-making classes.’ Now, when those two emails go to Hamas, right now, we see them. If you send a happy birthday message to Hamas and see it, that doesn’t matter. That’s not a threat to the United States. If you send an email that says, ‘Thank you for the bomb-making classes.’ We intercept that email. We read it, we find out who it is, and then when we come here to go find that person to arrest them to make certain that they don’t harm Americans, we have to court and get a warrant.
“There already is a warrant requirement for the protection of Americans and people who are here in the United States. If you have to have a warrant to look at the two emails that are sent to Hamas – ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Thank you for the bomb-making classes’ – you have no evidence of a crime. You have no ability to read these two emails. We will go dark. We will go blind.
“Now, the FBI abuses have been extraordinary in their search of foreign data. We need to punish them. This underlying bill punishes the FBI. We should not punish Americans. We should not make our nation less safe by giving constitutional protections to Hamas and giving consumer protections to the Chinese Communist Party.
“I’ve been talking to members on the floor. They say, ‘Hey, this amendment is about protecting Americans’ data in the United States.’ It’s not. Americans’ data in the United States is already protected by the Constitution. There’s nobody on this House Floor who would argue that you don’t need a warrant to look at Americans’ data in the United States.
“This amendment, and I encourage everyone to pick it up and read it, applies to the data that we collect and spy on Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Chinese Communist Party. To give them a warrant, to give them constitutional protections, means that they’re open for business.
“The day after this passes, and we go blind, the Chinese Communist Party has a complete pass to recruiting in the United States students to spy on our industry and our universities. Hamas and Hezbollah have a complete pass – we will be blind as they try to recruit people for terrorist attacks within the United States.
“Currently, we keep America safe by spying on our adversaries. Do not give our adversaries constitutional protection.”
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