[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27460]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




RESTORE ACT GIVES INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY THE TOOLS IT NEEDS TO CONDUCT 
                              SURVEILLANCE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, today we will restore some important checks 
and balances to our Nation's intelligence gathering. In August, the 
Bush administration pushed through Congress a last-minute bill that 
gave it the authority to go after Americans without warrants, a direct 
violation of our Nation's Constitution. The administration's bill 
included ambiguous language that could be read by some as authorizing 
warrantless domestic searches.
  The RESTORE Act clarifies this language and specifically prohibits 
warrantless surveillance of Americans and requires a court order before 
targeting Americans' phone calls or e-mails. It also includes strong 
new audit and reporting requirements so that Congress knows whose 
conversations are being captured. We include all these protections, but 
we also ensure intelligence officials have the ability to conduct 
responsible surveillance under the law.
  Mr. Speaker, every Member of Congress is committed to strengthening 
our intelligence community and ensuring they have tools they need to 
keep our country safe. But the RESTORE Act finds the proper balance and 
should receive strong bipartisan support today.

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