[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 15, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H1382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      GOVERNMENT SPIES ON CITIZENS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in a secret court, the FBI quietly 
revised its privacy policy for searching through data that is collected 
on Americans by the NSA. The NSA, which I call the National 
Surveillance Agency, gives the FBI access to not only the data it 
collects but to the content of personal communications, like emails, 
texts, and phone calls.
  What the intelligence agencies have been doing is lawfully collecting 
information on foreign terrorists but, at the same time, creating large 
databases of information that also contains information on American 
citizens. This identifying information is then used for what the FBI 
calls routine searches that are unrelated to national security.
  Mr. Speaker, the FBI does not obtain a court-approved Fourth 
Amendment warrant for these searches. This leeway by the NSA and the 
FBI allows for a backdoor to spy on Americans. Thus, the FBI is 
ignoring the U.S. Constitution.
  The NSA and the FBI will continue to violate the constitutional 
protections that are guaranteed to all Americans unless Congress 
intervenes and protects and upholds the right of privacy of all 
Americans.
  And that is just the way it is.

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