Newsletter - Voting to Defend Liberty (Amash Amendment)

Statement

Dear Neighbor,

It is hard to believe that summer is half way over (that means: football is just around the corner!). Here's a quick update on what I've been working on in Washington:

AMASH AMENDMENT
Benjamin Franklin once said: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" As a criminal court judge for over twenty years, I signed thousands of search warrants that put bad people in jail. For every one of those warrants served, I had determined there was a probable cause to search because that is what the law requires.

The NSA abused the law by using dragnet operations that did not designate a specific person in a specific place. They seized thousands of records of Americans in their quest for a few bad guys. These searches were not consistent with the 4th Amendment or the original intent of the PATRIOT Act. The Constitution requires warrants to be specific and based on probable cause for a specific person. The law does not allow a judge to issue a warrant to search every house on the block looking for one bad guy. This is no different. The government has no authority to seize millions of phone records looking for one person. The British did that during the colonial days. That is why we have the Fourth Amendment in the first place.

These Big Brother tactics have caused many of you to lose trust in your government. That is why this week I supported the Amash-Conyers amendment. The Amash amendment required that the government simply follow the Fourth Amendment which it has not been doing. This amendment ensured there was no grey area in the law by clarifying that Section 215 of the Patriot Act can only be used to collect information on people who are the subject of investigations. Sadly, with the defeat of the Amash Amendment, essential liberty suffered in the name of temporary safety.

EDUCATION
In the 2nd Congressional District, we are fortunate to have some of the finest schools in Texas. As a former teacher with many teachers in my family, education is very important to me. I take great pride in visiting our local schools each year. In our country, we believe every child deserves an equal opportunity to get a good education and a foundation to succeed in life. But, sadly, that's not happening in some schools. Our education system has fallen behind, and it's worse in low income neighborhoods. There are a lot of reasons for that, but we must improve upon the failing status quo.

Last week, I supported legislation that will improve our school systems and our children's education. The Student Success Act would allow federal funds to follow our most vulnerable children to better schools instead of forcing our children to stay in failing schools. The bill removes rigid and burdensome mandates from Washington, expands tutoring services, improves public school choice, and provides financial support for charter schools. Importantly, it empowers parents by giving them choice in their children's education and providing more information to hold schools accountable for the education they provide. This bill is a great step forward to improving our kids' futures.

FOREIGN AID
There are 191 countries in the world. The United States gives foreign aid to 158 of them. Many of them hate America. Currently, we send taxpayer dollars all over the world. Did you know that no one really knows how efficient or effective our foreign aid is? The government doesn't audit or monitor the effectiveness of our programs! Lack of transparency and accountability has resulted in massive corruption and waste. There must be measureable goals and accountability for these programs. That's why I introduced the bipartisan Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act. Companion legislation was introduced in the Senate by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Cardin (D-MD). This legislation will finally bring transparency and accountability to the American foreign aid program. We must be smarter about how we distribute foreign aid, and when it's not effective or in support of our national interests, we shouldn't be spending it at all.

As always, I want to hear from YOU. Please stay in touch and continue to call, email, tweet and Facebook me with your thoughts. Your input allows me to better represent you in Washington.

God and Texas,

TED POE
Member of Congress
TEXAS

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