Protecting Americans' Privacy

Floor Speech

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I voted for the Amash/Conyers amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act because it is the only means available to the House at this time to seek to prevent the Executive Branch from having sole custody of over a trillion records regarding the phone calls of ordinary Americans. I hope the Administration will soon put forward a proposal that would maintain our national security, while including greater privacy protections. We need more than a promise by the Executive Branch that it will hold records but not look at them except for ``relevant'' purposes. Possession is 9/10 of the law. Even a credible promise of the Administration may be less credible in future administrations. We cannot necessarily trust unknown future administrations to maintain the privacy commitments of this Administration.

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