(Washington, DC) - House Judiciary Committe Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) delivered the following remarks on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today regarding H.R. 3773, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008:
Mr. Speaker, there are few rights that are more fundamental to our democracy than the right to privacy. And there are few responsibilities that are more important than the government protecting us from foreign threats.
That conflict goes to the very core of who we are as a nation. For more than 30 years, we have relied on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to strike the appropriate balance between the government’s need to protect our citizens from foreign attack, and our citizens’ right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The heart of that bargain was that government could indeed use its awesome power of surveillance, but only through independent court review.
Six years ago, the administration unilaterally chose to engage in warrantless surveillance of American citizens without court review. And last August, when that scheme appeared to be breaking down, the administration pushed through a law it had drafted that essentially transferred the power of independent review from the courts to the attorney general. Today, we will be voting on legislation to restore the proper balance.
We have three titles. The first title allows the government to obtain a single court order to approve surveillance against all members of any known terrorist group. It includes important safeguards to make sure that this power is not used to target innocent Americans.
The second title deals with the very difficult issue of how we make sure that those carriers who assisted the government in the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy are not placed in a position where they cannot defend themselves in court.
The third title provides an accounting of the highly controversial warrantless surveillance program. The administration tells us they have nothing to hide and the program was lawful in their program or its implementation– if that is the case they should have nothing to fear from this blue ribbon commission.
We learned just yesterday that the FBI was continuing to misuse the authorities we granted it under the Patriot Act six years ago to unlawfully obtain information about law abiding Americans. We learned just four days ago that the National Security Agency was using its massive powers to create a nationwide data base of American citizens.
That is why I believe it is so important that we include the civil liberties safeguards set forth in the legislation before us today. The legislation before us gives the administration every tool they need to protect our nation against terrorism, while at the same time protecting our own citizens civil rights and liberties. I urge a yes vote.
