[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9793-9794]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. FLAKE (for himself and Mr. McCain):
  S. 1592. A bill to clarify the description of certain Federal land 
under the Northern Arizona Land Exchange and Verde River Basin 
Partnership Act of 2005 to include additional land in the Kaibab 
National Forest; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to cosponsor legislation 
introduced by my colleague, Senator Jeff Flake, that would fix a 
mapping error involving the transfer of Forest Service land to Young 
Life's Lost Canyon Camp in northern Arizona.
  The bill, S. 1592, would amend the Northern Arizona Land Exchange and 
Verde River Basin Partnership Act of 2005, P.L. 109-110, to clarify 
that Congress intended that Young Life could purchase at fair market 
value a full 237.5 acres of national forest land in the Kaibab National 
Forest as Congress intended. The Forest Service says there is an error 
in the Forest Service map referenced in the 2005 Act that has omitted 
about 25 acres from the land conveyance. This error appears to be 
preventing the Forest Service and Young Life from finalizing the 
transfer. Each year, nearly 5,000 young campers spend their summer at 
the Lost Canyon Camp, and this land conveyance is needed to expand the 
camp and create a buffer zone around the camp. I urge my colleagues to 
pass this clarifying legislation.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. Heller):
  S. 1595. A bill to describe the authority under which Federal 
entities may use mobile aerial-view devices to surveil, protect 
individual and collective privacy against warrantless governmental 
intrusion through the use of mobile aerial-view devices, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to 
further protect American's privacy, while providing clear guidance for 
Federal law enforcement for information collection using the newest 
technologies. I am sure my colleagues recall recent reports, from just 
a few weeks ago, detailing the FBI's use of secret planes to spy on 
people in dozens of cities without a warrant. These reports troubled 
both my colleagues and me, and left unclear exactly when the government 
thinks it is okay to surveil people from the air. As I have stressed 
many times before, the American public deserves to know the laws that 
the government relies on to surveil people, and the limits of those 
laws. And that's what this bill sets out to do.
  Now, drafting legislation in an area where technology is advancing 
rapidly and so many policy issues intersect, is a very difficult task. 
But I am confident that the Protecting Individuals From Mass Aerial 
Surveillance Act of 2015 reflects feedback from several stakeholders, 
experts and civil liberties groups, and provides the government the 
tools it needs to keep us safe without sacrificing our civil liberties.
  This bill would generally prohibit federal aerial surveillance 
without a warrant, but with several exceptions. It would allow the 
government to aerially surveil to protect people from disasters, 
terrorist attacks, entry of illegal substances at national borders, and 
other emergency situations. In addition, it would allow for government 
agencies to survey wildlife and conduct research by use of aerial 
vehicles, in order to ensure that habitats are preserved and 
environmental risks are assessed properly.
  This bill also would prohibit the government from identifying people 
that happen to appear in aerial surveillance, unless it has probable 
cause to believe those people have committed specific crimes. All 
information gathered in violation of the bill would be barred admission 
as evidence in any court of law, and the bill would also prohibit 
private operators of aerial vehicles from being proxies for unlawful 
government surveillance.
  I want to stress that we cannot stand to wait much longer to pass 
sensible limits on a type of surveillance whose technical capabilities 
are advancing rapidly. With the proliferation of drones in US airspace, 
and the numbers expected to increase by the thousands in the following 
few years, there is a real concern that the law has not been keeping up 
with technical advancements. And drones are not the only concern--use 
of planes and helicopters equipped with modern surveillance equipment 
make the technological landscape an incredibly dynamic one. That's why 
this bill today would remain technology neutral and apply to both 
manned and unmanned aerial vehicles.
  To my fellow colleagues, I strongly believe that this bill strikes 
the proper balance between allowing for aerial surveillance and 
protecting individual privacy. I am glad to have received help and 
feedback from the Center for Democracy and Technology, SOAR Oregon--a 
leading voice in Oregon's UAV industry, the Small UAV Coalition, the 
Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU, and other experts. I hope my 
colleagues will join me in supporting this bill and offering their 
feedback. At this time, I would like to ask that this statement be 
entered into the Record.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself and Mr. Leahy):
  S. 1599. A bill to provide anti-retaliation protections for antitrust 
whistleblowers; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today I am joining again with Senator 
Grassley in introducing the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act, 
legislation that will provide protections to employees who come forward 
and disclose to law enforcement agencies price fixing and other 
criminal antitrust behavior that harms consumers. This bill includes 
changes that we made in the Judiciary Committee last Congress, which 
enabled it to pass the Senate unanimously. Senator Grassley and I have 
long worked together on protecting whistleblowers, and this legislation 
continues those efforts.
  Whistleblowers are often instrumental in alerting the public, 
Congress, and law enforcement agencies to wrongdoing in a variety of 
areas. These individuals take risks in stepping forward and deserve to 
be protected from retaliation. Congress should encourage employees with 
information about criminal antitrust activity to report this 
information. The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act does exactly 
that by offering meaningful protection to those who blow the whistle on 
illegal behavior such as price fixing.
  This legislation is modeled on whistleblower protections that Senator 
Grassley and I authored as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The 
protections are narrowly tailored and do not provide whistleblowers 
with an economic incentive to bring forth false claims. Last Congress, 
we made modest changes to the bill in the Judiciary Committee to 
improve the definition of a covered individual and clarify that 
protections only apply to employees reporting criminal violations. The 
protections in this bill build on recommendations from key stakeholders 
in a 2011 Government Accountability Office report to Congress.
  The antitrust laws offer critical protections for consumers that 
promote free enterprise. By extending whistleblower protections to this 
area of the law, this bipartisan bill will help to ensure that criminal 
antitrust violations do not go unreported. This bill passed the Senate 
unanimously last Congress. I urge the Senate to pass it again.

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