[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7842-7843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     NATIONAL SECURITY LEGISLATION

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I wanted to speak earlier because I 
wanted to encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come to 
a resolution on this problem. We cannot let this country go dark in 
terms of its ability to do its duty to defend the United States of 
America. We have to get off of what we are doing here and start getting 
down to the business of what we need to do.
  I have to believe that tonight the world is watching us and they are 
saying: There goes the United States Senate, and there they go home, 
ha, ha, ha. They have a program that someone tried to render helpless 
in terms of our ability to protect ourselves. Edward Snowden literally 
tried to disgrace the United States.
  Now here we are working on a program that went through the respective 
committees, that has the sound and sensible solution, and we have 
rejected it.
  I am not here to talk about the program, but I will tell you whom I 
am ready to talk about--the thousands and thousands and thousands of 
people who work at the National Security Agency, and I want to talk 
about what they go through every day. They are out there working a 36-
hour day trying to defend the United States of America, and they want 
to work under a law that is constitutional, is legal, is authorized, so 
they can do the necessary work to defend the United States of America. 
They thought they were doing that under the old FISA bill. They thought 
they were doing that. They were proud of what they were doing. They 
mustered everything they could give to this country. Then along comes 
Eric Snowden. Then along come the leaks. Then along comes the 
pontificating about ``My, my, my, we have to worry about privacy.''
  I worry about privacy, too, but I also worry about the safety and 
security of the United States of America. And I watched the Nation 
vilify the men and women who work at this Agency.
  So now, as we work under the current law--which will expire; make no 
mistake, it will expire--we don't have it together to pass a new law. 
So they have been vilified for what they have done. They have been 
vilified for what they have done, in many instances attacked by their 
neighbors, their children picked on and bullied because their parents 
work at this Agency. Morale was at a low ebb. Finally, now we are 
trying to deal with and cope with that. They are proud of their work. 
And what are we doing? We can't even pass a law. We can't even pass a 
law. I think that is absolutely outrageous.
  I am so sorry we are going home. I am so sorry we are going home. So 
now we will come back next Sunday. I really urge those people--who I 
know are of good will and well-intentioned--to really work to find a 
way that when we come back next Sunday, we will be able to vote and 
move forward and not end up in this ongoing parliamentary quagmire.

[[Page 7843]]

  I worry about our country, and I worry about our ability to govern. 
This is as serious as it gets. What is the role of a National Security 
Agency? To be able to operate and function in a way that is 
constitutional, legal, authorized, and obviously of necessity.
  So I really feel very strongly about this. And I have watched all 
this go back and forth. So we spent hours and days and days and days on 
all of these amendments on trade. That is good. I am glad we did it. 
But I am not glad we took that long. We had this bill. We knew we had 
this bill. We waited until the last minute. We got ourselves into a 
jackpot. Now we really have to find our way out.
  I just cannot speak more forcibly and enough about this. Well, I will 
have more to say next week. But I really urge others to do their very 
best. I know there are people here, such as my colleague Senator 
Feinstein and others, who have worked on this.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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