[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1770-1771]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT SECTION 702 AND SPYING BY NSA

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the NSA is using a loophole in the 
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on Americans without a 
warrant. Under section 702 of FISA, government agents may seize 
information from databases on suspected foreign terrorists.
  While seizing the information on these terrorists, NSA also seizes 
data on Americans without a warrant, data that includes emails, texts, 
and voice communication. This is an unlawful interpretation of FISA.
  It was never the intent of Congress that section 702 would be used to 
create databases of information that would

[[Page 1771]]

later be searched for information on American citizens without a search 
warrant and without that individual's knowledge.
  I have introduced legislation that would prohibit warrantless 
searches of government databases for information that pertains to U.S. 
citizens.
  The NSA has and will continue to violate the constitutional 
protections guaranteed to every American unless Congress acts. Until we 
fix this and make the law clear, citizens will never be sure or safe 
that their private conversations are secure from the eyes and spies of 
government.
  The Bill of Rights cannot be trampled upon in the name of national 
security, whether the NSA likes it or not.
  And that is just the way it is.

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