House proceeding 06-20-08 00 :: 0:00:00 to 0:20:00 of 1:39:55

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` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` x the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the speaker pro tempore: the house will come to order.

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members will take their seats. members and staff in conversations will remove them from the floor. >> madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan

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rise? >> pursuant to house resolution 1285, i call up the bill h.r. 6304 and ask for its immediate consideration in the house. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of

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the bill. the clerk: h.r. 6304, a bill to amend the foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978 to establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence and for other purposes.

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the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 1285, debate shall not exceed one hour with 30 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking member of the

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committee on the judiciary and 30 minutes divide and controlled by the chairman of the permanent select committee on intelligence and ranking member of the committee. each will control 15 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers.

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John Jr.Conyers: mr. conyers: pusuant to house resolution 1285, i have a motion at the desk. madam speaker, i ask unanimous consnst that all members have five legislative dayto revise and extend their remarks

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John Jr.Conyers: and include extraneous material in think bill uk nder consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. conyers: i yield myself as much time as i may consume. the speaker pro

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John Jr.Conyers: tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. conyers: members of the house, several months oago, on october 16, 2007, to be exact, the house passed the foreign intelligence surveillance act

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John Jr.Conyers: legislation, known as the restore act. in view of this member, the restore act was a reasonable and balanced one, giving the administration the power it needs to combat terrorism while

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John Jr.Conyers: protecting our precious rights and liberties. the legislation before us today , which i concede includes significant improvements over the senate legislation, goes beyond what i think was a

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John Jr.Conyers: reasonable bottom line in the form of the restore act. title i of the bill continues the house approach by providing mechanisms to ensure that fisa's long standing exclusivity is crystal clear.

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John Jr.Conyers: it states only a new statute directly addresses the executive branch's foreign intelligence surveillance authority can modify fisa. secondly, it provides sunshine by requiring that the government

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John Jr.Conyers: request to private parties for surveillance assistance must actually cite the statutory authority under which they are issued. now in earlier versions of fisa reform, the administration claimed

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John Jr.Conyers: that prior court approve of procedures for oversees -- overseas surveillance would hurt national security this matter is now laid to rest with a consensus that up-front court review is indeed

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John Jr.Conyers: appropriate. the requirement for individual warrants and probable cause determinations for americans overseas is an improvement over even the original fisa legislation. there's a provision

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John Jr.Conyers: in the legislation that permits the attorney general and director of national intelligence to begin a surveillance prior to seeking court approval for the necessary procedures in exigent circumstances.

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this is intended to be used rarely, if at all, and was inuded upon assurances from the administration that agrees that it shall not be used routinely. the measure before us further requires

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extensivext oversight by congress and the independent inspectors general to prevent abuse. it mandates guidelines for targeting minimization and to prevent reverse targeting and task the inspector

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generals to monitor compliance with those protections. now, title ii of the legislation concerning telecom liability raises the most serious concerns in my view. in the past, i've said that

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i've been open to developing a set of procedures that allow both plaintiffs and defendants to make their case. unfortunately, this bill goes well beyond that and changes the substantive standard

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for legal liability by the telecom community -- by the telecom companies and does so on a retroactive basis, retroactive immunity. so i appreciate that the final bill does not send the matter

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to a new secret court and does grant the court a meaningful role in the determination. unfortunately, these improvements do not redeem the overall provision. in title iii of the bill will

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also ask the inspectors general to conduct independent investigations into the president's warrantless wiretapping program. this inquiry will help uncover the truth for the american people hopefully

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about the president's activities. then there's a part in here about a week, an emergency provision, any u.s. citizen can be wiretapped. i strenuously object to that. on that note, i reserve

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the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers, reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, is recognized. mr. smith:

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i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognize plsmed smith: after nearly a year of delays and months of negoations, the house today will vote

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on compromise legislation that gives our intelligence community the tools it needs to protect america. i join my colleague, mr. hoekstra, ranking member of the intelligence committee, and

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chairman reyes, as an original co-sponsor of this compromise bill. america's enemies take on many forms, terrorist groups, foreign governments, and spies, who all pose a serious threat

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to america and its allies. last august, congress passed the protect america act which provided a temporary solution to the problem. the p.a.a. expired in february. as a result, our intelligence

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community could not gather 2/3's of the foreign intelligence they needed to protect american lives. from day one, we insisted that any legislation passed by congress must not interfere with

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our fundamental ability to collect foreign intelligence this legislation accomplishes that goal. h.r. 6304 does not extend constitutional protections to foreign terrorists and other foreign

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targets overseas. the bill does allow the intelligence community to target a foreign person overseas without a court order if critical intelligence would be lost or not collected in a timely

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manner. we insisted that any legislation passed by congress include strong liability protections for telecommunications carriers that assisted the government following the terrorist attacks

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of september 11, 2001, as well as protections for their assistance in the future. h.r. 6304 provides these important protections. we insisted that congress enact long-term fisa legislation. the

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bill we have before us today will not sunset until the end of 2012. this compromise legislation also provides strong civil liberties protections for americans both within the united states

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and abroad. it mandates congressional oversight and detailed reported to the house and senate judiciary committees and requires a review by the inspectors general of the department of justice and the

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intelligence agencies. this compromise is long overdue. it's supported by both the department of justice an the intelligence community. i urge my colleagues to support this bill and i reserve the balance

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of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, reserves his time. the gentleman from texas, mr. reyes is recognized. mr. reyes: i yield myself such time as i may consume.

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the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. reyes: and i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so order. mr. reyes:

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thank you. i rise today as a sponsor of h.r. 6304, the fisa amendments act of 2008 this bill represents the cullmy nation of more than a year's work by the members and staff of the house intelligence

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committee together with our colleagues on the jew dish year -- jew dish year -- judiciary committees to monitor our surveillance while protecting the constitutional rights to have americans.

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i want to thank chairman conyers for his efforts to strengthen this bill. i greatly appreciate my good friend' commitment to protect ours country and the principles we hold so dear. i want

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to thank the respective ranking members and all that work sod hard to bring this bill to the floor today. this bill, madam speaker, enjoyed wide support inside the democratic caucus. it has been

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endorsed by our democratic whip, by our democratic caucus chair, by the blue dog coalition, the new democratic caucus, and by a number of our colleagues. for that, i want to thank in particular

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our majority leader, mr. hoyer, for leading the effort toward a bipartisan compromise. this bill is a far better deal than the protect america act and it is far better than the senate

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bill that passed earlier this year. madam speaker, intelligence is the first line of defense in our nation's effort to prevent terrorism and stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

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this legislation strengthens the ability of our intelligence agencies to conduct lawful surveillance of foreign targets. but this legislation also serves another very important and vital

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function. it strengthens the constitutional rights of americans. protects them from unlawful surveillance, and it stop this is president or any president, for that matter, from invoking executive

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power to conduct warrantless surveillance of americans. this bill does more than just retain the original fisa requirements for an individual warrant based upon probable cause for surveillance

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targeting americans here in the united states. for the first time ever, this bill requires in statute warrants for americans anywhere in the world. it also requires the government to establish

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clear guidelines to ensure that no american is the target of any surveillance without a warrant. it clarifies that fisa and title 18 of the criminal code are the exclusive means by which the

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government may conduct domestic surveillance. it will proiblet any unlawful warrantless wiretapping, the kind we saw under this administration. it provides accountability by requiring the inspectors

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general of various agencies to compile a comprehensive report on the president's surveillance program. and that review must be given to congress. it requires prior court approval of the

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procedures used to conduct surveillance of foreign targets, except in an emergency, similar to the current fisa law. this legislation, madam speaker, also addresses the issue of lawsuits against telecommunication

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companies that comply with directives fr our government. this bill does not grant immunity to any government official who might have violated the law. and this bill does not grant automatic

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immunity to telecom companies as the senate bill would have. under this legislation, a federal district court will review the evidence submitted by the attorney general and the court -- and

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then the court will decide whether or not to grant civil liability protection to a company that provided post-9/11 assistance to the government. in this bill, congress does not grant immunity.

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congress isn't deciding the question of immunity. the district court will. finally, madam speaker, this bill will sunset in 4 1/2 years, ensuring that the next administration will be in position

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to assess and review the effectiveness of this legislation. this legislation represents a bipartisan compromise and as such both sides got less than they wanted. but it is a product of good faith

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effort by both republicans and democrats to give our intelligence agencies the tools necessary to keep america safe while protecting our constitution and our civil liberties. i strongly urge my colleagues

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to vote for this very important piece of legislation. with that, madam speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas, mr. reyes, reserves his time.

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the gentleman from michigan, mr. hoekstra, is recognized. mr. hoekstra: thank you, madam speaker. at this time i'd like to yield to the distinguished minority whip, who played such a critical

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role in ensuring that this bill made it to the floor today. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri is recognized for three minutes. mr. blunt: thank you, madam speaker, and thank

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you, mr. hoekstra, for this initial time that would otherwise gone to you. i thank you, mr. hoekstra, and mr. reyes and mr. smith for bringing this important piece of legislation to the

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floor for working so hard to see that it came to the floor. i'd also like to say that i again appreciate the opportunity to work with my good friend, mr. hoyer. he spent so many hours and so

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much time on this. from h staff, mariah, from my stf, brian, mr. from reyes's staff and carolyn lynch from mr. smith's staff. i got to know, frankly, and work with jeremy bash from mr. reyes'

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staff, and lou debaca from mr. conyers' staff and appreciated the real pitive contributions they bring to this process every day. i'd also like to suggest that two staffers of my colleague

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from missouri, mr. bond, lewis tucker and jack livingston, spent lots of time and lots of productive work on this. madam speaker, this represents a compromise, as mr. reyes just said,

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as mr. smith just said, that was forged with lots of hard work by lots of people. it accomplishes the goals of the intelligence community. there's no individualized court order for targeting

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foreign terrorists in foreign countries. there are protections here for communication providers that may have assisted the government. but as mr. reyes said, those protections will be

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determined by a court, not by this legislation. we modernized the law to adopt the changes in technologies during the 1978 fisa statute. the bill would accomplish all this while adding

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new protections and strengthening the individual liberties and privacy protections of americans. we also work closely with the majority to reinforce the fisa court's role in procedural

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certifications and reviews of administration's policies, and we created some new obligations for the attorney general to establish guidelines. madam speaker, like yesterday's vote, this

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bill is an example of what we can do when we work together. i thank all those who worked so hard to get it to the floor today. i urge my colleagues to vote for it. i yield back. the speaker

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pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers. mr. conyers: madam speaker, is it true that i have 10 minutes remaining? the speaker pro

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tempore: 10 1/2 minutes, mr. conyers. mr. conyers: 10 1/2 minutes. well, i'm going to recognize mr. nadler, ms. lofgren, mr. scott, ms. jackson lee, mr. holt, ms. lee, mr. capuano, mr. kucinich

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and mr. inslee. a couple of them will get a minute and a half. the first one to be recognized is crime subcommittee chairman scott for a minute and a half. the speaker pro tempore: the

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gentleman from virginia is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. scott: thank you, madam chair. and i oppose h.r. 6404. it allows widespread acquisition of private conversations without

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meaningful court review. the bill actually permits the government to perform mass untargeted surveillance of any and all conversations believed to be coming to and out of the united states without