[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6749-6750]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            USA FREEDOM ACT

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the House of 
Representatives overwhelmingly passed the USA FREEDOM Act, a bipartisan 
bill to reform the controversial domestic surveillance programs.
  The passage of this legislation is the result of strong bipartisan 
negotiations to strike a balance in order to protect American citizens' 
rights without dealing a blow to lawful and warranted surveillance 
efforts.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress did not intend for any law to authorize the 
indiscriminate collection of personal information

[[Page 6750]]

from Americans. The USA FREEDOM Act will help end government overreach, 
while ensuring intelligence agencies have the tools at their disposal 
to lawfully pursue suspected terrorists in efforts to protect all 
Americans.
  As a member of the bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, I applaud 
the Judiciary Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on 
Intelligence for working together to write a bill that strikes a 
balance to protect our constitutional rights without compromising our 
national security.

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