[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7908-7909]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     NATIONAL SECURITY LEGISLATION

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, we are here because the Senate is not 
functioning. We were here last night because the Senate is not 
functioning. Oh, it is functioning according to the rules, which say 
that you have to go through this arcane procedure of cloture on the 
motion to proceed and get 60 votes before you can ever get to the bill. 
Once you get to the bill, then you file another motion for cloture. The 
Senate rules say that there are 30 hours that have to run unless, as 
has been typical of Senate business, there is comity, there is 
understanding, and there is bipartisanship. But one Senator can 
withhold unanimous consent, and that has been done--so the 30 hours.
  Now, normally that may be standard procedure for the Senate, but it 
is getting in the way of our national security. At midnight last night 
the law that allows our intelligence community to track the emails and 
the phone calls of the terrorists evaporated. It won't be reenacted 
until sometime later this week because of the lack of unanimous 
consent.
  But this Senator from Florida is not putting it at the feet of just 
the one Senator who is withholding the unanimous consent. This Senator 
from Florida is saying that this should have been planned on over a 
week ago. This Senator is saying that we should have gone through the 
laborious procedures--not

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assuming that we were going to have the votes last night, not assuming 
that there was going to have comity and unanimous consent. This Senator 
thinks that we should have done this because of the urgency of national 
security.
  It is interesting that this Senator from Florida comes to the floor 
with mixed feelings. I voted for the Leahy bill, which is identical to 
the House bill, but I did that because we didn't have any other choice. 
When I had another choice, I voted for Senator Burr's--the chairman of 
the Senate Intelligence Committee--version, which was to continue 
existing law. I did so because I clearly thought that was in the 
interests of our national security.
  But since that is not the prevailing vote of the Senate, we need to 
get on with it and pass the House bill. Then I would urge the chairman 
of the Intelligence Committee, who is on the floor, that--down the 
line--the 6-month transitional period from the old law to the new law 
be extended with a greater transition time to 12 or 18 months. I would 
further urge the chairman of the Intelligence Committee that as to a 
major flaw in the bill passed by the House, which we will eventually 
pass this week, we add to it a requirement for a certain amount of time 
that the telephone companies would have to keep those telephone 
business records, so that if there is an urgency of national security 
going through the FISA Court, those records would be available to the 
intelligence community to trace the telephone calls of the terrorists. 
That would be my recommendation, and I see the chairman nodding in 
somewhat agreement.
  I hope we will get on. I hope better hearts and minds will prevail 
and that we can collapse this period of darkness where there is no law 
governing emails, phone calls, cell phones, et cetera, as we try to 
protect ourselves from the terrorists.
  I would hope that this would be collapsed into a much shorter time 
instead of having to wait until late Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday 
of this week.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.

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