[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 96 (Thursday, June 16, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S4294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DAVID MEDINE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, for the past 3 years, David Medine has 
served as chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, 
PCLOB--the first chairman finally to be confirmed after Congress 
reestablished the PCLOB as an independent agency and strengthened its 
authority. Under his leadership, the PCLOB has worked diligently to 
review surveillance programs and make recommendations to protect 
individual privacy and civil liberties. Mr. Medine recently announced 
that he will be leaving government service to join a nonprofit 
organization that serves low-income and disadvantaged individuals. He 
will be missed.
  Mr. Medine was confirmed at a critical time, just a month before the 
first Snowden revelations in June 2013. In response to reports that the 
NSA had been collecting Americans' phone records in bulk for years 
under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, he guided the PCLOB's work in 
reviewing that program and releasing a comprehensive report in January 
2014. The recommendations in that landmark report included ending the 
bulk collection of Americans' phone records, installing an amicus at 
the FISA Court, and instituting a number of other privacy protections. 
Many of these recommendations were subsequently enacted into law in the 
bipartisan USA FREEDOM Act of 2015.
  Under Mr. Medine's leadership, the PCLOB also released a detailed 
unclassified report in July 2014 on surveillance conducted pursuant to 
section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is 
slated to expire at the end of next year. This report includes a 
valuable unclassified explanation of the implementation of section 702. 
These reports and Mr. Medine's related testimony before the Senate 
Judiciary Committee have been tremendously beneficial to Congress and 
the American people in examining government surveillance programs.
  Mr. Medine's public service spans more than 20 years. Over the course 
of his career, he has earned a reputation as a thoughtful and well-
respected authority on privacy and data security issues. I commend Mr. 
Medine for his dedicated public service and efforts to protect the 
privacy and civil liberties of the American people, and I wish him well 
in this new chapter.
  (At the request of Mr. Burr, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

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