[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8195-8198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EVENTS OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Gohmert) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Today is a very important day, the day of the anniversary of the 
invasion on D-day during World War II. There is also another important 
aspect about today, because we learned about the administration's 
collecting of massive information, private information, about every 
Verizon customer's phone numbers, all the calls they made, outside the 
country and within the country. Staggering. It makes one think, well, 
gee, if this administration was gathering information and got a court 
order, a secret court order, to get all this information from Verizon, 
then most likely they did from the other carriers as well. And as a 
Verizon representative has pointed out, look, when we get a court order 
demanding that we turn over information, then we have to turn it over. 
And that is what we do in a country where we believe in the rule of 
law, we are supposed to follow the law.
  But what is staggering for those of us who have debated over the FISA 
courts, where you have a real, legitimate, nominated and confirmed 
Federal judge, presides over information that is considered so secret 
that the disclosure of even the request for information would create 
dangers to national security. We've debated that in the Judiciary 
Committee. That included my friend, Ms. Jackson Lee. We've had these 
debates over these issues.
  I was talking with my friend with whom I often disagree in Judiciary, 
a Congressman from New York, Jerry Nadler, and actually I recall him 
indicating during debates that if we didn't rein in the power of the 
Federal Government, these were the types of things that could happen. 
And I have to admit today that for any predictions or concern on the 
part of Jerry Nadler that if we gave the power under article 215 or 
section 215--basically, the PATRIOT Act, the FISA courts--that it could 
and would be abused, Mr. Nadler was right. We are now seeing 
affirmation of that.
  But I do think it is important that we understand what we're talking 
about with regard to these phone records, and as a preface I think it's 
important to look at the order from the United States Foreign 
Intelligence Surveillance Court, Washington, D.C. It's entitled, Mr. 
Speaker, In Re Application of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 
an Order Requiring the Production of Tangible Things from Verizon 
Business Network Services, Inc. on behalf of MCI Communication 
Services, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Business Services. It cites for its 
authority in this the law at volume 50 of the United States Code, 
section 1861.
  In this order that is granting the request of this Justice Department 
under this Attorney General, who is under fire for other issues, it 
says, ``The court having found that the application of the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation''--which is under the auspices of the Attorney 
General, the Justice Department--``for an order requiring the 
production of tangible things from Verizon Business,'' et cetera, the 
court finds that it satisfies the requirements of 50 U.S.C., section 
1861.
  It goes on to say that accordingly, these things are ordered, and it 
orders, and I'm quoting now:

       An electronic copy of the following tangible things: all 
     call detail records or ``telephony metadata'' created by 
     Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and 
     abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including 
     local telephone calls.

  Further down, it says:

       Telephony metadata includes comprehensive communications 
     routing information, including but not limited to session 
     identifying information (e.g., originating and terminating 
     telephone number, International Mobile Subscriber Identity 
     (IMSI) number, International Mobile station Equipment 
     Identity (IMEI) number), trunk identifier, telephone calling 
     card numbers, and time and duration of call. Telephony 
     metadata does not include the substantive content of any 
     communication, as defined by 18 U.S.C., section 2510(8), or 
     the name, address, or financial information of a subscriber 
     or customer.


[[Page 8196]]


  Now, this comes on the heels of information about just how invasive 
this administration had gotten when they went after the records of the 
Associated Press, the phone information of many, many phone numbers, 
and some of them coming from right up here in the area where the 
reporters use. This is in the United States Capitol. Many times these 
phones up here are used by reporters to call Members of Congress, who 
have another constitutional privilege under the Constitution that 
provides privilege for the information that is provided for or to a 
Member of Congress. It's not unlimited. But that's on top of the 
freedom of the press that's also granted in the Second Amendment.
  It is amazing when our Attorney General said, gee, in essence, this 
was like the most egregious or one of the most egregious national 
security leaks I had ever heard about. It was so serious, we had to go 
after this material, and then we find out there were only a handful of 
people in the entire administration who knew the information that got 
leaked. And instead of just going without a warrant--they don't need a 
warrant to get their own administration phone call data. They didn't 
even need a court for that. It's their data. They could have gone to 
the handful of individuals that knew the information that got leaked 
and checked their phone logs to see who they called. But instead of 
doing that, they decide to go on a fishing expedition for all of this 
telephone information about the Associated Press.

                              {time}  1400

  They apparently wanted to know who the AP talks to, what they do, 
what they know, who they know. Let's get all of this information.
  They didn't need that for their pursuit of the leaker. They didn't 
need it at all. They could have gone straight to their own sources and 
got what they needed from there; and then once they have a subject 
within the AP, if anyone, then they could go for that information.
  And as a former judge, if somebody came and said we have found the 
source of the leak, here's one of the five-or-so people that knew the 
information, he called this reporter at this number, and so we have 
probable cause to believe that the leak was made to this reporter, and 
put other information in there that raises it to the level of probable 
cause to allow the judge to let them take a look at that one reporter's 
single phone logs.
  But, no, they didn't do that. They went on an incredibly vast and 
very chilling fishing expedition.
  And then we have the Attorney General testify before our Judiciary 
Committee, and I know my friends mentioned this before I got up, my 
friends on the other side of the aisle. They were talking about how he 
is such a great Attorney General, in essence, and certainly never 
perjured himself.
  But I heard what he said. I've heard it replayed over and over; and 
when he says he wasn't aware of, he had not heard of, he never 
participated in--he didn't think it was a good idea was the basics of 
what he said--of ever prosecuting a reporter.
  And then within a week or so we find out, actually, he approved of an 
affidavit that went before a judge with the request for a warrant from 
the court against James Rosen with Fox News.
  Now, I've had people wake me up at all hours of the day and night. 
I've had people call when I was awakened at 2 or 3 in the morning and 
say, Judge, we need to come by your house. This is really serious. And 
they'd come by; and if they had enough data in their affidavits that 
established probable cause, then I would grant a limited warrant.
  But there were times I would get upset with a law officer that 
bothered me with an affidavit and a request that clearly didn't have 
probable cause. We aren't going to grant that. If you're not sure if 
you have probable cause, talk to the DA's office, run it by them before 
you bring something in that clearly does not establish probable cause.
  Fortunately, the law officers were so good that we normally dealt 
with that normally that was not a problem, but sometimes it was. And 
any responsible judge takes that very seriously.
  And sometimes you would get a request for a warrant for information; 
and you go, okay, you've established probable cause in your affidavit, 
but your request is so global and broad, or so ambiguous, I can't sign 
the order you've prepared. Sometimes I would interlineate in the order 
and make it more specific. Sometimes they would know that I was going 
to be restrictive, and they would leave blanks for that.
  But then to find out that the court granted this administration's 
demand, with an affidavit supporting it, under oath, that they needed 
all the records that Verizon had on phone calls inside the United 
States and to places outside the United States, and the judge just 
grants it.
  And now, following on the heels of learning that the IRS targeted 
political enemies, political opponents, people in Tea Parties, people 
that were very pro-Israel, other groups, a group that was very pro-
marriage between a man and a woman, like has been the tradition in this 
country for the entire history of the country, until now, when it's 
come into question, and some think that nature totally failed when it 
created, biologically, a mating between a man and a woman, that it 
screwed up, it should have been a man and a man.
  Well, that's a difference of opinion. But under this administration, 
they felt like it was worth going after and preventing a group like 
National Organization for Marriage from stepping up and standing on the 
traditional marriage and being able to deliver that message.
  Now, it didn't prevent them from quickly granting legal status to 
groups that felt otherwise, or if somebody was related to somebody in 
the administration. We've seen those examples.
  But, gee, they also knew within the IRS that if they granted or 
denied a request, well, a denial could be immediately appealed. And so 
in order to prevent justice from being done, prevent people from having 
the opportunity to politically express themselves as a group, they just 
sat on them, 1, 2, 3 years, to prevent them from being able to go 
public as a group.
  I was shocked that a reporter asked the question, well, you groups, 
you were coming begging to the IRS. You're the ones that asked for 
legal status. And I'm sure this is a very fine reporter, but it just 
showed the ignorance--and there's nothing wrong. We're all ignorant of 
different areas--but showed the ignorance of where we have gotten to in 
this country where the Internal Revenue Code is so oppressive, if you, 
as an individual go out and say look, I don't have much money, I'm a 
working man, I'm just barely getting by. You're a working woman, you're 
just barely getting by, but if we pool our money, we might be able to 
express ourselves politically, maybe buy a commercial, or maybe send 
out flyers, or maybe buy a billboard, but something. If we pool 
together, maybe we can have an impact in politics on an issue like 
marriage.
  And if you pool your money like that, and you don't have permission 
from the IRS, then they're going to come after you because you've got 
to have a legal status to do things like that now in America.
  And it is further indication as to why this infernal Internal Revenue 
Code and the incredibly huge number of regulations that were never 
passed by any elected representative, they're just generated day after 
day after day by some bureaucrat somewhere, I used to say in a cubicle, 
but apparently we find out they've got some pretty luxurious offices 
and they spend millions on their conferences they go to.
  Apparently they haven't spent enough on learning to line dance 
because I wasn't very impressed with their line dancing, but that's not 
part of their job, so maybe they need to get into a different area or a 
different profession.
  But they have to obtain legal status if they're going to do anything 
politically, or the IRS can come after them for not doing so. So we 
have forced groups into getting government approval before they can 
ever express themselves politically. It's astounding.
  And when you find out this administration has used so many aspects of 
its

[[Page 8197]]

power to chill or prevent political opposition to their positions, to 
their re-election, then it really gets scary when you find out they're 
just out there wanting everybody's information on everybody they called 
in the country and out of the country.
  And we had some pretty significant debates in Judiciary under FISA 
and under the PATRIOT Act; and we were assured, no, the law makes very 
clear you can only get information from an American citizen if they're 
in a foreign country and the foreign law allows that and they call a 
known or suspected terrorist.
  But under these laws, we can't just go get information about an 
American citizen's personal records. We can't do that without probable 
cause they've committed a crime.

                              {time}  1410

  But under these incredible powers of the PATRIOT Act and the ability 
to go to the FISA court, as they did here, and get a secret order, we 
were told and we debated and some felt like even if an American citizen 
is in a foreign country, we don't think you ought to be able to get 
that American citizen's phone data, even if you just pull it out of the 
air. We don't think you should be able to get that.
  So there was debate about those things. Well, what if they're calling 
a known terrorist, and we've got American intelligence agencies 
gathering in a foreign country and we can get that without a warrant? 
It's out there floating around in the air. We can get that. And this 
was debated--Yeah, but they're an American citizen. You ought to leave 
them alone. And some of us felt if they're an American citizen in a 
foreign country and our intelligence agencies can get intelligence data 
without violating the foreign law, then you need to know as an American 
citizen when you go into a foreign country, you may have our own 
intelligence agencies getting information about your telephone calls as 
long as they're not violating the law of the country they're in. And 
that's the way I felt.
  But we were always assured that unless there was probable cause to 
believe an American citizen was calling a known or suspected terrorist 
or a hostile foreign government, that kind of thing, then no, we don't 
go after American citizens' information. And especially not if there's 
a call from an American citizen to another American citizen. That's 
none of our business, unless there's probable cause to believe a crime 
is being committed. Then we find out they have actually found a judge 
that signed off on this thing, and they got all this information.
  Now I know there's some--even Republicans--who would say, Gee, I 
don't care if the government has my phone number. They've gotten it so 
they can go after terrorists. Well, unless you're a terrorist, the 
American government has no business monitoring what all you're doing 
and who you're calling, especially this administration, with all the 
abuses we've already seen. It's wrong. It should not be occurring. But 
they've done so.
  There was a tweet today by Ace of Spades. The tweet was: We've all 
got an Obama phone now. Well, apparently we do. Because this 
administration is following every call being made by every phone in 
America--at least the ones on Verizon. So that leads you to believe 
they've probably gotten it from other information, too.
  And I do appreciate my colleagues' on the other side concern that 
enough good things about ObamaCare are not coming out because some of 
us are concerned about the Attorney General's perjury. And I would 
submit, humbly, that a major reason not enough good things are coming 
out about ObamaCare is because there are not a bunch of good things 
coming out. People are losing their insurance. They're getting in 
trouble. And that is a big problem.
  Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has approximately 7 
minutes remaining.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you.
  This is the anniversary of D-Day. So many Americans died on the 
beaches at Normandy. So many free countries gave the last full measure 
of devotion there on those beaches. It wasn't Normandy but rather 
another beach where one of my constituents, who has since passed away, 
said that when they were landing at Anzio, they were doing it so early 
in the morning, there was no sunlight. But the Axis powers had such 
powerful lights that you could read a book in their landing craft. And 
they'd been taught that when the landing ramp went down when they got 
to shore, they were to all run out at the same time. And as they got 
closer, they heard the machine gun bullets going back and forth across 
the front of the ramp. He said, We were all so scared. We know when 
that ramp went down, we were all going to die.
  And one of the guys--Paul Stanley recalled his name, I do not--but he 
exemplified the spirit of America. He finally looked around and said, 
Guys, we all know if we run out of this landing craft the way we've 
been trained, we're all dead. So here's what we're going to do. I'm 
going to go first. Everybody is going to put your weapon in your right 
hand and grab the belt of the man in front of you and we're going to 
run out single file. Some of us won't make it. But that way some of you 
have a chance.
  Paul Stanley said he was third. The two in front of him were killed 
and everybody else made it. That's the spirit of America that landed on 
the beaches of Normandy to take on the Axis powers who sought to take 
freedom from free people.
  It was on this day in 1944 that Franklin Roosevelt said this prayer 
on national radio. Today, he would probably be excoriated because of 
some of the terminology.
  He said:

       My fellow Americans, last night, when I spoke with you 
     about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of 
     the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in 
     another and greater operation. It has come to pass with 
     success thus far. And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to 
     join with me in prayer.
       Almighty God, our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have 
     set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our 
     Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free 
     a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give 
     strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, 
     steadfastness in their faith.
       They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and 
     hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. 
     Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return 
     again and again, and we know that by Thy grace, and by the 
     righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. They will 
     be sore tried, by night and day, without rest until the 
     victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. 
     Men's souls will be shaken even with the violences of war.
       For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They 
     fight not just for the lust of conquest. They fight to end 
     conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice 
     arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They 
     yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the 
     haven of home. Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, 
     and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
       And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives, 
     sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas--whose thoughts 
     and prayers are ever with them, help us, almighty God, to 
     rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this great 
     hour of great sacrifice.
       Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single 
     day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the 
     desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a 
     continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again 
     when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, 
     invoking Thy help in our efforts. Give us strength, too--
     strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we 
     make in the physical and the material support of our Armed 
     Forces. And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long 
     travail; to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage 
     unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
       And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee, faith in 
     our sons, faith in each other, faith in our united crusade. 
     Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not 
     the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but 
     fleeting moment, let not these deter us in our unconquerable 
     purpose.
       With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces 
     of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and 
     racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and 
     with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a 
     sure peace, a peace invulnerable to schemings of unworthy 
     men.

[[Page 8198]]

     And a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping 
     the just rewards of their honest toil.
       Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.

  Franklin Roosevelt, on this day in 1944.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________