Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I have seen a lot since we have been here. This is my third term. Never before have I actually been frightened about what could happen if FISA is not reauthorized or this warrant amendment is passed, which effectively kills our ability to detect and connect the dots between foreign terrorists and what they might do here domestically.

I have never been more concerned. I spent the last 20 years of my life fighting for this country. I lost an eye doing it.

Additionally, I don't think we actually disagree very much on principle. There is always a balance between civil liberties, privacy, and security. I don't think my colleagues and I are very far apart on that. We are very far apart on the facts at hand. So let's talk about some myths and some facts.

Myth: FISA is used to spy on Americans.

The myth goes like this: If you query an American's name, you can see their in-box. That is not true.

It is used to spy on foreign intelligence targets, foreign terrorists, and you need a warrant to do so. If they speak to an American, you will get that part of the conversation. That is all you get.

There is another myth. This bill doesn't go far enough. It doesn't do any reforms. That is not true.

The reforms in here would stop in their tracks what happened to President Trump with Crossfire Hurricane. It is almost entirely intended to stop what happened to President Trump. Not only that, it would codify 56 warrant reforms. It would put in processes before queries are even made. It would put in criminal penalties for those who do not abide by those processes.

The FBI hates these reforms, by the way.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this bill and not to support the amendment to require a warrant for queries.
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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chair, I want to let my fellow Americans know something that might shock them.

We all know that fentanyl is a scourge on our country. We all know that fentanyl is produced by the Mexican drug cartels. We all know that the precursor chemicals for fentanyl come from Chinese companies.

What you might not know is that we can't even get a FISA warrant to stop that, to collect intelligence on those production companies, on those attorneys, on those bankers, on those facilitators that help the cartels murder and poison tens of thousands of Americans every single year.

That is a pretty shocking statement. I bet you didn't know that. You should know that.

FISA, despite all of the misinformation put out about it, is actually very narrowly tailored. It only allows you to get a warrant on a foreigner in foreign land if it is related to foreign intelligence, if it is related to countering weapons of mass destruction, or if it is related to counterterrorism. Nowhere in there is there anything about counternarcotics, the thing that is actually killing Americans today and every single day.

My amendment would simply upgrade that categorization to ensure that we can collect intelligence on the Chinese precursor being shipped into Mexico and into our own country so that we can actually stop the death of Americans.

It is a very narrowly tailored amendment. It is not about all drug traffickers. It does not swoop in a bunch of Americans. It is about international drug traffickers trafficking illicit synthetics that are killing people.

It is a very simple amendment. It is a bipartisan amendment. It is one of the biggest things that I have learned in my role as chairman on the cartel task force, that we actually are blind to the supply chains of fentanyl.

To be against this amendment is to say we should give the cartels and China more Fourth Amendment rights and more First Amendment rights than we have. That is what it would mean in practice. I hope that anyone who votes against this amendment stops talking about the cartels being a problem. If we are not even allowed to collect intelligence on the cartels, then what are we doing?

Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Houlahan).

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chair, to those opposed to the underlying bill, I understand. We are going to have to agree to disagree, but I cannot imagine being opposed to this amendment, even if you vote against the overall bill.

I thought we all agreed that the cartels are one of our number one threats. They are killing tens of thousands of Americans every year by poisoning them with fentanyl. We need to know how they are doing it. We need to know who their suppliers are. We need to know who is laundering their money. We can't know that within our current law. All we have to do is allow ourselves to do it.

This is one of the most important things that I think our constituents actually care about. If we are going to act like we have sympathy for the sons and daughters who have been killed from an overdose of fentanyl, then we actually have to take action on it.

I have got to say, too, that the warrant amendment would kill our ability to do this. Remember, the whole point of drug trafficking is to get it in the United States.

The whole point of terrorism is to conduct a terrorist attack here in the United States.

When you are collecting intelligence on foreigners, the only way they do those things is to communicate with entities inside the United States. To demand a secondary warrant just to search that communication kills our ability to connect those dots.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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