Hoyer: Adopt this Legislation and Make America as Safe as We Possibly Can
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) delivered remarks on the House Floor in support of S. 1318, the Foreign Intelligence Accountability Act, which reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Below are a video and transcription of his remarks:
Click here to watch a video of his remarks.
"I thank the gentleman for yielding, and thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I was Majority Leader in 2008, Mr. Blunt, who was then in the leadership of the Republican Party, Senator Kit Bond, and Senator Jay Rockefeller, who co-chaired the Intel Committee in the United States Senate, and I worked together in a very difficult context. And that context was, the Bush Administration had asked for information from the telecoms, telecoms had given the information, and there were really no firewalls as to what that information was. And so, the four of us worked with the Intelligence Committee of the House to come up with legislation which would solve the problem of making sure that we were secure as a country and that the privacy of our citizens were secure. We think we accomplished that objective – and in fact, the leadership in the Senate voted for it, President Obama, then a Member of the Senate, voted for it, and Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Clyburn, and I voted for it, along with others. The Republicans were overwhelmingly for it. In September 2012, we did it again. Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Hoyer, [and] Mr. Clyburn voted for it. We did it again in January of 2018, and Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn, Wright, Ryan, McCarthy, and Scalise all voted for it.
"The point I want to make is this has been a bipartisan process with bipartisan presidential buy into the necessity to have this legislation adopted to keep Americans safe, while also adopting significant reforms in 2008, some reforms thereafter to provide for the privacy protections to the American people. It is a balance, but it is a balance that I think we have achieved. I think we ought to pass this legislation. I urge my colleagues to do so. Our FISA reauthorization bills are how Congress ensures that our nation is protected in the first instance against threats from terrorist groups and foreign adversaries. Our intelligence services have the difficult task of catching threats before they materialize and providing critical information to national security leaders. As many here will remember, the attacks of September 11th, 2001, occurred after our national security agencies failed to identify, track, and coordinate known threats. 25 years later, we have learned these lessons, and we continue to grapple with essential questions about how to balance the needs of our national security with protecting Americans' liberties.
"That is an ongoing process, of course, and I know Democrats on the Committee, led by Ranking Member Himes, were diligent in pushing for reforms to Section 702 that would make those protections stronger for Americans while still delivering the tools needed. This bill does not include all of the reforms, of course, none of the bills that we consider have all the things we'd like to have in them. But, in testimony from Avril Haines, who headed up the DNI under the Obama Administration – excuse me, under the Biden Administration, she believes this is absolutely essential. Other members of the Obama Administration and the Biden Administration believe [that] this legislation is essential. I believe this legislation is essential, and I urge my colleagues – having worked on this since 2008 – to adopt this legislation and make America as safe as we possibly can. I yield back."