[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 194 (Wednesday, November 29, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H9473]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  STOP GOVERNMENT SPYING ON AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, most Americans may not be aware of 
what is taking place by our government. Our government is spying on 
Americans and I think it is in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
  In all of the talk that we have been having the last few weeks, we 
are missing one of the most basic issues that we hold dear: the right 
of privacy.
  Let me explain how it is taking place.
  Go back to Snowden. We didn't know about all of the spying going on 
in America until Snowden revealed that. I am no fan of his. I think he 
ought to be prosecuted, but we know information about our government 
spying on our Americans because of his disclosures.
  Let me talk about specifically the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Act.
  What is that?
  FISA allows our government to spy on foreign agents, which includes 
terrorists, primarily overseas. So what happens is the government goes 
to a FISA court.
  What is that?
  It is a secret court that operates in secret that issues secret 
warrants.
  I personally have an issue with that because it reminds me too much 
of the Star Chamber in England where they operated in secret and tried 
people in secret.
  As a former judge, I am very concerned about the loss of our Fourth 
Amendment right of privacy in the United States based on this law. 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courts operate in secret and 
issue warrants to go after bad guys overseas. So they seize that 
information and they put it in a database.
  Here is what happens: while seizing that information of 
communication--maybe an al-Qaida guy talking to another al-Qaida guy--
they put that information in a database, but also that information is 
seized on Americans. Incidental is what they call that. That may be a 
communication with an American that has nothing to do with terrorism. 
It could be something else. So that information is seized on Americans 
based on this warrant by a FISA judge on foreigners. The information is 
put in the database.
  Here is what happens: occasionally, the government decides to go into 
that database that was seized without a Fourth Amendment warrant and 
see how many times a name comes up. They call it a query. That is 
another fancy name for a search. So they search that database to see 
how many times Bobby Oglethorpe's name pops up. Then they go to their 
administrative folks and get a piece of paper that allows them then a 
second search.
  They search that database to see if Bobby Oglethorpe is committing 
crimes in the U.S., having nothing to do with terrorism. Maybe it is 
bank robbery, maybe it is IRS fraud, maybe it violates other laws in 
the United States.
  So then they seize that information, and we don't know how many times 
they do that. The Judiciary Committee has asked the Justice Department: 
How many times have you done that?
  They refuse to tell us.
  Suspicious, isn't it?
  I will tell you how many times it is. According to The Washington 
Post, 90 percent of the account holders whose communications were 
collected were not the targets, the bad guys overseas. Ninety percent 
of them. Many of them were Americans. Nearly half of the surveillance 
files contained names, email addresses, and other details that the NSA 
marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents.
  So what information are they getting?
  Emails, communications, text messages. They seize that, then they go 
through that database to see if Bobby Oglethorpe is a bank robber or 
whatever, and all of that is done in secret. Remember, secret courts 
issuing secret warrants, and they don't tell anybody about that. That 
is a violation of the Fourth Amendment on Americans.
  Let me read the Fourth Amendment: ``The right of the people to be 
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against 
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no 
warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or 
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and 
the persons or things to be seized.''
  Mr. Speaker, the Fourth Amendment is sacred to this country, and I 
include in the Record the Fourth Amendment.

                            Amendment [IV.]

       The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
     houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches 
     and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall 
     issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or 
     affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be 
     searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in this situation, government seizes 
the information without a probable cause warrant. Then they search the 
information to see how many times Bobby Oglethorpe maybe has violated 
other laws, and they do it without a probable cause warrant.
  That is allowed under 702 of the FISA legislation. We are getting 
ready to reauthorize FISA. This 702 provision should require a warrant 
to search that information, a warrant to take the content of that 
information and make it public, and file on Bobby Oglethorpe.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress must set the standard for privacy, not the 
courts; and we are called upon to fix this spying on Americans and not 
allow it.
  And that is just the way it is.

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