Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. Chair, the debate today is really focused on whether or not the FBI should be required to obtain a warrant to access U.S. person data. As the quote we are all familiar with says, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I remind my colleagues of the debate on the previous FISA reauthorization bill in the 115th Congress. Many of my current and former colleagues stood behind this very podium and swore up and down that the FISA Amendments Act of 2017 would provide necessary protections for U.S. person information while keeping our country safe.

Yet, since the bill became law, there were nearly 3 million U.S. person queries just in 2021 and hundreds of incomplete FISA applications and the use of section 702 to query data on Members of Congress, protestors, and even FBI janitors.

It appears to me that the factor that continues to fall by the wayside in all of the debates that are happening is that human nature plays a part.

Mr. Chair, that is the dilemma that we find ourselves in. We didn't pick this. This is where we ended up.

Do we allow human nature to take its course and permit the FBI to continue to abuse U.S. person data, which the Department of Justice IG Special Counsel Durham, the FISA court, and numerous independent review bodies have found to be negligent, inappropriate, and a threat to American privacy, or do we rein in the FBI and fight for our Fourth Amendment rights?

I choose to side with the latter and support the amendments that limit rather than expand the FBI's ability to query U.S. person data.

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