Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chair, I don't discount the mounting dangers we face from enemies abroad, but we also cannot discount the dangers we face at home from the very powers that this bill would continue.

As has been pointed out, the FBI abused these powers 278,000 times in a single year and turned them against American citizens by phishing for January 6th and Black Lives Matter rioters, probing political donors, and even piercing congressional offices.

John Adams believed that the indiscriminate searches by British officials became the first spark of the American Revolution. Having lived under such a tyranny, the Founders protected us with the Fourth Amendment. Before authorities can search through our records, they have to get a warrant from an independent judge by showing probable cause to suspect that we have committed a crime.

Now, there are many excellent reforms in this bill, and I applaud them, but they largely depend on these agencies policing themselves, and experience warns us that is just not enough. Without a warrant requirement, I fear these powers will, once again, be turned against our fundamental liberties and these days that scares me as much as a terrorist attack.

Just imagine how much safer we would all be if we stationed a soldier in every house, but we have the Third Amendment to protect us against that tyranny, just as we have a Fourth Amendment to protect us against the tyranny of indiscriminate searches.

Benjamin Franklin's warning echoes from his age to ours today: ``Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.'' Let that not be history's judgment of us.

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