[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8732]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              PATRIOT ACT

  (Mr. MASSIE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MASSIE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to implore my fellow 
Congressmen to wake up. Can't we see what's happening?
  In just the past month, we discovered that the NSA is snooping on 
millions of innocent Americans using the PATRIOT Act. Congress wrote 
the PATRIOT Act. The IRS is targeting conservative organizations using 
the Tax Code. Congress created the Tax Code. And the DHS has stockpiled 
200 million hollow-point bullets. Congress just funded DHS last week. 
Do you want me to be surprised? I'm not surprised. I'm outraged. But 
what's happening here? In each case of executive overreach, Congress 
gave an inch and the executive branch took a mile.
  When our civil liberties are stolen, Congress investigates and 
expresses righteous indignation, but all too often Congress then turns 
around and funds and enables this unconstitutional behavior. If we 
don't reverse this trend, we can kiss our civil liberties good-bye.
  The Constitution embodies American principles that men and women 
fought and died to protect. We swore an oath to protect it. Madam 
Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to reflect on the damage that CISPA, 
the PATRIOT Act, and the NDAA have wrought on our civil liberties and 
implore my fellow Members to uphold the constitutional rights they 
swore to protect. Don't yield one inch.

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