[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 163 (Tuesday, December 18, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8117-S8132]
unanimous consent agreement--S. 3276
Mr. REID. Mr. President, the Senate has been considering the
supplemental appropriations bill for 2 days now. The Republicans, I am
told, are in the process of trying to picture out what they want to do.
We have other concerns, as you know. We had the tragedy in Connecticut,
and we had the untimely death of our friend Senator Inouye. But time
doesn't stop for anything. It keeps marching on, Christmas is coming.
We have a fiscal cliff that is on the horizon. So I hope we can make
progress on this bill in the morning. If not, I will be forced to file
cloture to try to figure out a path forward on this bill. It has been
open for amendment. That is what my friends said they wanted, and that
is what they have.
We have the DOD authorization. We need to complete action on that
conference report, which has been completed now. We expect they will
file tonight or tomorrow, so we need to complete that before the end of
the week.
Christman is 7 days from today. We have judicial nominations. We have
been making some progress with the district court nominations. We have
to do three more before the end of the week. We have executive
nominations we need to consider before the end of the week.
FISA is an important piece of legislation. Imperfect as it is, it is
what is necessary to help us be protected from the evil that is in the
world. We have to complete this before we leave here this week.
Today is Tuesday. Everyone else can do the math just as well as I can
about how many days are left.
I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the
majority leader after consultation with the Republican leader, the
Senate proceed to consideration of Calendar No. 463, S. 3276; that the
only first-degree amendments in order to the bill be the following:
Judiciary Committee-reported substitute; Leahy, sunset; Leahy,
oversight; Wyden, public reporting; Wyden, backdoor searches; Tester,
reverse targeting; and Merkley, declassification of FISA Court opinion;
that there be 1 hour of debate equally divided between the proponents
and opponents; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate
proceed to votes in relation to the amendments in the order listed;
that there be no amendments in order to any of the amendments prior to
the votes; that upon disposition of the amendments, the bill be read a
third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill, as
amended, if amended.
Mr. President, before the Chair rules, it is pretty easy to figure
out how much time this includes. This is the better part of a day--the
better part of a day if we got this consent done. So I ask that the
Chair approve the consent agreement.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I do
intend to object, first of all, I say to the leader, thanks for moving
toward the FISA bill because--the Senator is exactly right--this is a
bill that must get done before the end of the year so we can make sure
our intelligence community is able to gather, in a lawful and legal
way, the kind of intelligence that helps keep America safe and secure.
There are two documents; first, a Statement of Administration Policy
from the White House where they have agreed to the bill that has
already passed the House, and second, a letter from the leadership of
the intelligence community--namely, the Director of National
Intelligence as well as the Attorney General--directed as the
leadership, both of which letters and statements support the House
bill.
It is because of that and because of the fact that if the House bill
comes through here--and I understand we may have to have debate, may
have to have amendments debated, whatever the leader says--but the
important thing is that we can hopefully get that bill passed and send
it directly to the President's desk.
So I would ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the
letter from the DNI and the Attorney General dated February 8 as well
as the Statement of Administration Policy dated September 10.
Mr. President, I do object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Executive Office of the President, Office of Management
and Budget,
Washington, DC, September 10, 2012.
Statement of Administration Policy
H.R. 5949--FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012
(Rep. Smith, R-TX, and 5 cosponsors)
The Administration strongly supports H.R. 5949. The bill
would reauthorize Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires at the end of this
year. Title VII of FISA allows the Intelligence Community to
collect vital foreign intelligence information about
international terrorists and other important targets
overseas, while providing protection for the civil liberties
and privacy of Americans. Intelligence collection under Title
VII has produced and continues to produce significant
information that is vital to defend the Nation against
international terrorism and other threats. The Administration
looks forward to working with the Congress to ensure the
continued availability of this critical intelligence
capability.
____
Hon. John Boehner,
Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Hon. Harry Reid,
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Nancy Pelosi,
Democratic Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Hon. Mitch McConnell,
Republican Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Speaker Boehner and Leaders Reid, Pelosi, and
McConnell: We are writing to urge that the Congress
reauthorize Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) enacted by the FISA Amendments Act of
2008 (FAA), which is set to expire at the end of this year.
Title VII of FISA allows the Intelligence Community to
collect vital information about international terrorists and
other important targets overseas. Reauthorizing this
authority is the top legislative priority of the Intelligence
Community.
One provision, section 702, authorizes surveillance
directed at non-U.S. persons located overseas who are of
foreign intelligence importance. At the same time, it
provides a comprehensive regime of oversight by all three
branches of Government to protect the privacy and civil
liberties of U.S. persons. Under section 702, the Attorney
General and the Director of National Intelligence may
authorize annually, with the approval of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), intelligence
collection targeting categories of non-U.S. persons abroad,
without the need for a court order for each individual
target. Within this framework, no acquisition may
intentionally target a U.S. person, here or abroad, or any
other person known to be in the United States. The law
requires special procedures designed to ensure that all such
acquisitions target only non-U.S. persons outside the United
States, and to protect the privacy of U.S. persons whose
nonpublic information may be incidentally acquired. The
Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence conduct extensive oversight reviews of
section 702 activities at least once every sixty days, and
Title VII requires us to report to the Congress on
implementation and compliance twice a year.
A separate provision of Title VII requires that
surveillance directed at U.S. persons overseas be approved by
the FISC in each individual case, based on a finding that
there is probable cause to believe that the target is a
foreign power or an agent, officer, or employee of a foreign
power. Before the enactment of the FAA, the Attorney General
could authorize such collection without court approval. This
provision thus increases the protection given to U.S.
persons.
The attached background paper provides additional
unclassified information on the structure, operation and
oversight of Title VII of FISA.
[[Page S8130]]
Intelligence collection under Title VII has produced and
continues to produce significant intelligence that is vital
to protect the nation against international terrorism and
other threats. We welcome the opportunity to provide
additional information to members concerning these
authorities in a classified setting. We are always
considering whether there are changes that could be made to
improve the law in a manner consistent with the privacy and
civil liberties interests of Americans. Our first priority,
however, is reauthorization of these authorities in their
current form. We look forward to working with you to ensure
the speedy enactment of legislation reauthorizing Title VII,
without amendment, to avoid any interruption in our use of
these authorities to protect the American people.
Sincerely,
James R. Clapper,
Director of National Intelligence.
Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
Attorney General.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I will continue to work on a path forward.
If anyone has any ideas how to help me do that, I would be happy to
listen to them, but this is something we must do before we leave here.
Christmas is not more important than this legislation. I am sorry, I
hope I am not offending anyone, but that is the way it is. We have to
get something done on this before the end of the year, and I think we
will be walking on very, very thin ice to try to wait until after
Christmas to try to move this legislation. It is hard for me to
comprehend the potential damage to our country if we do not extend this
legislation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
