Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as a member of the Appropriations Committee, I am concerned about a pending amendment, McCain amendment No. 4787.

We had a series of votes earlier this week on sensible gun safety measures. We know by all the polling that the overwhelming majority of Americans supported these measures, but they were blocked by Senate Republicans.

Now it appears the Republican leadership wants to change the subject. They are resorting to scare tactics to divert the attention of the American people from their failure to act in response to mass shootings. Let's be clear about what we need to stay safe. We need universal background checks for firearms purchases and we need to give the FBI the authority to deny guns to terrorist suspects.

Senate Republicans rejected those commonsense measures earlier this week, but we still have the chance to give law enforcement real and effective tools. We should strengthen our laws to make it easier to prosecute firearms traffickers and straw purchasers.

I am a gun owner. I know if I go in to buy a gun in Vermont--even though the gun store owner has known me most of their life--I have to go through a background check. But you can have somebody who has restraining orders against them, warrants outstanding against them, or who could have been convicted of heinous crimes, and they can walk into a gun show, with no background check, and buy anything they want.

We also know they can go and buy all kinds of weapons to sell at a great profit to criminal gangs that couldn't buy them otherwise, and of course to those who are going to commit acts of terrorism and hate crimes.

We also need to fund the FBI and the Justice Department so they have the resources to combat acts of terrorism and hate. Those are the elements of the amendment that Senators Mikulski, Baldwin, Nelson and I filed yesterday.

In contrast, Republicans are proposing to reduce independent oversight of FBI investigations, and make permanent a law that as of last year had never been used. The McCain amendment would eliminate the requirement for a court order when the FBI wants to obtain detailed information about Americans' Internet activities in national security investigations.

You can almost hear J. Edgar Hoover, who loved to be able to spy on any American he didn't like, asking: Why didn't I have that when I was the head of the FBI?

The McCain amendment could cover Web sites Americans have visited; extensive information on who Americans communicate with through email, chat, and text messages; and where and when Americans log onto the Internet and into social media accounts. Over time, this information would provide highly revealing details about Americans' personal lives, Americans who are totally innocent of any kind of criminal activity, and they get all of this without prior court approval.

That is why this amendment is opposed by major technology companies and privacy groups across the political spectrum, from FreedomWorks to Google, to the ACLU.

Senator Cornyn and others have argued that we cannot prevent people on the terrorist watch list from obtaining firearms without due process and judicial review. Yet at the same time they are proposing to remove judicial approval when the FBI wants to find out what Web sites Americans are visiting. The FBI already has the authority to obtain this information if it obtains a court order under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.

None of us would feel comfortable if the FBI or any law enforcement agency could just walk into our home, rifle through our desks, and go through the notes of whom we have called or whom we have talked to. But they are saying because we have done it electronically and through the Internet, we ought to be able to just ignore any right of privacy and go into it.

So rather than trying to distract us from their opposition to commonsense gun measures, such as their opposition to requiring somebody who has criminal indictments pending against them from being able to go to a gun show and buy guns, Republicans should support actions that will help protect us, such as those in the amendment filed by Senators Mikulski, Baldwin, Nelson, and myself.

Instead of kowtowing to a very well-organized special interest lobbying group, why not listen to the lobby of the American people and do what Americans want. I hope Senators will oppose the McCain amendment. I hope they will support measures that will actually help keep our country safe.

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