[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 11, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H1597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REAUTHORIZING PATRIOT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Massie) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MASSIE. Mr. Speaker, some of my colleagues today will offer a 
bill to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act.
  It will have the thin varnish of reform on it, designed to whitewash 
the egregious constitutional violations that have been going on, but it 
is the Americans who are going to be shellacked by this legislation and 
the process used to pass it.
  I want to read the Fourth Amendment and part of the Fifth Amendment 
to the Constitution here today on the floor.
  ``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.''
  The Fifth Amendment says: Nor shall any person be ``deprived of life, 
liberty, or property, without due process of law.''
  So, let's think about some of these words because they are being 
treated as if they are curse words or dirty words today. Warrant, due 
process, probable cause, these are all things that are guaranteed as 
rights for all Americans in the Constitution, and none of those can be 
guaranteed without transparency.

  We can't have star chambers and kangaroo courts. This has to happen 
in daylight, and it has to be reviewable by the people in order to know 
that these things are true.
  These things, they are inconvenient, a warrant, due process, probable 
cause. They are inconvenient for investigators. They are inconvenient 
for prosecutors. They sometimes get in the way. They make the job of 
finding the criminals, of finding the terrorists, a little bit harder. 
But they are guaranteed rights of all Americans, so we have to keep 
them in the process.
  But let me talk about the legislative process here today, and I want 
to challenge the authors of this bill to come down here and defend what 
they have done.
  This bill started out in a committee. This is how it is supposed to 
happen, as a base bill. Then, as the debate started getting underway, 
oh, it got inconvenient. Things were said that people didn't want to be 
said. Amendments were offered to make it more constitutional. They 
didn't like that.
  What did they do? The chairman of the committee pulled the bill, 
canceled the hearing, and canceled the markup of this bill, and they 
took it behind closed doors. They took it into the back room to write 
it. They took it into the back room to draft it.
  Why did they go into the back room? Because the lobbyists aren't in 
the committee, and the deep state doesn't get a vote on the committee, 
so they got them in the back room with them. The lobbyists and the deep 
state helped draft this bill that we are going to vote on today.
  How much time do we have to review it? Less than 24 hours. Last night 
is when they made the text available.
  There is a rule in this House that guarantees 72 hours to review a 
bill. They are going to suspend that rule here in a few minutes, and 
people will willingly vote to suspend that rule so they can ram this 
bill through, so that they can reauthorize the unconstitutional 
provisions of the PATRIOT Act.
  Now, I understand terrorists, foreign terrorists, don't have 
constitutional rights, so that is why the PATRIOT Act and the Foreign 
Intelligence Surveillance Act were passed, so that those impediments 
wouldn't be in the way when you are going after terrorists, foreign 
terrorists. But everybody is presumed innocent until proven guilty, so 
we need to maintain that.
  One of the worst things that has happened as a result of the FISA and 
the PATRIOT Act is that a Presidential candidate was spied on. He is 
now the President. He overcame that. But this bill should fix that.
  A candidate, Presidential, congressional, city councilman, never 
again should they be spied on using these tools that are supposed to go 
after terrorists, after foreigners.
  I urge my colleagues in the House--well, the ones who have offered 
this bill, I urge them to get down here and defend what they have done. 
I urge them to come down here and explain why they don't want us to 
have--they don't want you to have 72 hours to look at this bill. Come 
down and defend that.
  Then, for all of my other colleagues here in the House, I urge you to 
vote ``no.'' And for my friends in the Senate, vote ``no'' as well.
  If this should make it to the President's desk, which I fear it is 
going to--I fear it is going to be on his desk, and he has some unwise 
or insincere counselors right now. I urge the President, if this should 
make it to his desk, to remember what they did to him with this 
legislation. Remember. And I urge him to veto this bill if this should 
get there this week.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair.

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