[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 22]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 30939]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY WARRANTLESS SPYING ON AMERICAN 
                                  SOIL

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 22, 2005

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a Resolution of 
Inquiry H. Res. 643 requesting the Attorney General to transmit to 
Congress documents reflecting the legal justification for spying on 
American soil without judicial approval. I introduce this Resolution on 
behalf of myself and Mr. Berman, Mr. Boucher, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Scott of 
Virginia, Ms. Lofgren, Ms. Jackson-Lee, Ms. Waters, Mr. Meehan, Mr. 
Delahunt, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Weiner, Mr. Schiff, Ms. Linda Sanchez, Mr. 
Van Hollen, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Kennedy of Rhode Island, Mr. 
Doggett, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Filner, Mr. Markey, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. 
Tauscher, Ms. Lee, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Udall of New Mexico and Mr. Holt.
  It is my hope that the Administration will voluntarily comply with 
this straightforward request. However, if they do not, this Resolution 
will require a vote in the Committee, and possibly the House floor so 
that the Members can go on record concerning whether this is an 
important enough issue to warrant Congressional oversight. I believe we 
simply cannot tolerate a situation where the Administration is both 
laying down and interpreting the law on its own accord, and not even 
sharing with the Members of Congress what the legal justification for 
such a program is.
  Last week we learned that the President has been using the National 
Security Agency to conduct surveillance involving U.S. citizens on U.S. 
soil, in apparent contravention of the Foreign Intelligence 
Surveillance Act. This week we learned that contrary to the President's 
assertions that the wiretapping included only foreign calls, some of 
the intercepted communications were conducted entirely within the 
United States. As a result of these disclosures, one member of the FISA 
Court, Judge James Robertson, resigned, and the presiding judge of the 
court has sought a classified briefing to address their concerns that 
the NSA program was illegal and may have been improperly used to gain 
further wiretaps from their court.
  These revelations raise some of the most serious legal and 
constitutional questions conceivable in our democracy--whether our own 
government is able to intercept our most private conversations without 
establishing to any independent party that such eavesdropping is in any 
way necessary or related to a possible crime. For 25 years under FISA 
we have created special procedures for obtaining intelligence 
information on U.S. soil. The standard for getting a wiretap warrant 
from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is so low that only 5 
out of the 19,000 applications have been denied since 1978. We even 
allow FISA orders to be obtained on a retroactive basis for the first 
72 hours, in case the government needs to move with great speed.
  However, for some reason the Bush Administration has opted not to use 
the FISA laws to obtain surveillance orders involving a number of 
people located on U.S. soil. As one official told the Washington Post, 
``the FISA process demanded too much: to name a target and give a 
reason to spy on it.''
  The purpose of this Resolution of Inquiry is to allow Congress to 
obtain the necessary information so we can learn precisely what the 
legal basis was for this great expansion of executive power. We are not 
asking to learn about the names or identities of the individuals who 
have been surveilled; at this point we simply want to learn on what 
legal basis the surveillance orders were issued. The Administration has 
proposed a number of legal theories to the press to justify the NSA 
wiretaps, ranging from the President's authority as Commander In Chief 
to general authority included in the post 9/11 Afghanistan Resolution.

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