[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 67 (Thursday, May 25, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H3229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           SPYING AND THE FBI

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, amidst the debate nationally about the 
tracking of calls of millions of Americans, questions about 
bureaucratic leaks here on Capitol Hill, and evidence that we are awash 
in information, the FBI approached an employee in Portland City Hall 
last week to solicit her to spy on activities there.
  Mr. Speaker, the FBI has had a long and shameful history of spying on 
American citizens, information that Director J. Edgar Hoover used 
literally to blackmail people in government and treated Martin Luther 
king shamefully. It prompted some of my conservative friends to call 
for ripping his name off the FBI headquarters.
  It is time for the FBI to get its priorities straight. Remember, this 
is the institution that couldn't deal with information it had before 9/
11 about potential airplane hijackers.
  If evidence of wrongdoing is in place, jump on it, but don't 
establish a spy network trolling for information. Let us keep the FBI 
on its important work. The American public deserves it.

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