[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 80 (Friday, May 22, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3303-S3304]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            USA FREEDOM ACT

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the votes the 
Senate will soon take relating to three expiring provisions in the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
  I will vote to support the USA FREEDOM Act, the bill passed by the 
House last week by a vote of 338 to 88, and strongly urge my colleagues 
to do the same. In my view, this is the only action that we can take 
right now that will prevent important intelligence authorities from 
expiring at the end of next week.
  Let me describe the situation in a little more detail.
  On Monday morning at 12:01 a.m. on June 1, three separate sections of 
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, will expire. Two of 
those provisions were first added to FISA in 2001 in the USA PATRIOT 
Act, shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11. They are the 
business records section, also known as section 215, and the roving 
wiretap provision.
  The business records provision was originally intended to allow the 
government to go to the FISA Court to get an order to be able to obtain 
a variety of records relevant to an investigation. The authority was, 
and remains, very important for the FBI.
  Since 2006, the business records authority in FISA has also been used 
by the NSA to get telephone metadata records from telephone companies--
the records of the telephone numbers and the time and duration of a 
call. Metadata does not include the content or the location or names of 
the individuals on the phone.
  The roving wiretap provision allows the government to use 
surveillance authorities under FISA, pursuant to a court order, against 
an individual who seeks to evade surveillance by switching 
communication devices. If a terrorist gets a new cell phone or changes 
an email address, the government can continue surveillance on that 
individual under the same probable cause

[[Page S3304]]

warrant from the FISA court rather than having to go back to the Court 
for authority to collect information from each new phone number or 
email address.
  The third provision, the so-called ``lone wolf'' provision, was added 
in 2004 over concern that the intelligence community may not be able to 
gather information on a known terrorist if it could not demonstrate his 
membership in a specific terrorist group. Given the threat we face 
today from individuals inspired by ISIL, for example, that threat is 
even more real today than it was a decade ago.
  These provisions have been reviewed by the Intelligence and the 
Judiciary Committees for many years and have been subject to enormous 
public scrutiny.
  For more than a year, there has been a strong desire by the American 
public, supported by the President and by the House of Representatives, 
to make a basic change in the use of the business records authority. 
That change is to end the bulk collection of phone records by the NSA 
and to replace it with a system for the government to get a FISA Court 
order to be able to obtain a much more specific set of records from the 
telecommunications providers when there is a ``reasonable, articulable 
suspicion'' that a phone number is associated with a foreign terrorist 
group.
  The Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General have 
written to the Senate to indicate their support for this change, which 
they state ``preserves essential operational capabilities of the 
telephone metadata program and enhances other intelligence capabilities 
needed to protect our nation and its partners.''
  I would also note that the USA FREEDOM Act will allow private 
companies that receive requests and orders from the government to 
produce information, at their own discretion, that allows them to be 
more transparent about those requests and orders from the government. I 
support this additional transparency and thank the sponsors of the USA 
FREEDOM legislation for including it.
  I have spoken to a number of technology companies, including several 
founded and based in California, that believe that transparency is not 
only good policy but that it will help them show publicly that their 
products and services are secure and independent from government 
control.
  So the choice before the Senate today is a clear one: whether to vote 
for the only sure way to continue the use of important intelligence 
authorities in a way that has the support of the American people, the 
President, the intelligence community, and the Department of Justice or 
to hope that the authorities will be renewed for 2 months despite clear 
communications from the House that it will not support such an 
extension.
  FBI Director Comey said earlier this week that the expiration of the 
business records and roving wiretap authorities would be a ``huge 
problem,'' and I believe him.
  Given the wide range of threats facing Americans, both at home and 
abroad--particularly from ISIL and Al Qaeda--we should not allow these 
valuable authorities to expire.
  To me, this is an easy choice, and I will support the USA FREEDOM 
Act.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to engage in a 
colloquy with Senator Cornyn and Senator Leahy, ranking member of the 
Judiciary Committee, regarding important aspects of S. 337, the FOIA 
Improvement Act of 2015, that could affect the essential work of our 
financial regulators.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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