Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CONYERS. Madam Chair, if there is one simple lesson that we can take away from our involvement in conflicts overseas, it is this: beware of unintended consequences.

As was made vividly clear with the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion decades ago, overzealous military assistance or the hyperweaponization of a conflict can have destabilizing consequences and, ultimately, undercut our own national interests.

It is for this reason that I offer this bipartisan amendment with my colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho), and others to prevent funds in this bill from being used to transfer man-portable air defense systems, known as ``MANPADS,'' to parties in the Syrian civil war. MANPADS, also known as ``shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles,'' can be fired at an aircraft by individuals on the ground, and they can be easily hidden or transported in the trunk of a car.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

U.S. and Israeli officials have feared that they could be used by terrorists to bring down commercial airliners.

Leaders of the Syrian opposition movements have told The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets that they are actively seeking the transfer of MANPADS from the U.S. and our allies and that U.S. officials continue to consider these requests. I urge the support of the amendment.

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Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chair, I want to thank Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, and the other sponsors of this amendment for their continued leadership on the effort to roll back dragnet surveillance of United States citizens.

Last month, a broad, bipartisan majority passed H.R. 3361, the USA FREEDOM Act. That bill rightly ends domestic bulk collection.

But, as I said then, ending bulk collection is only part of the work that must be done to fully reform government surveillance.

This amendment closes the ``backdoor surveillance'' loophole--through which the government queries U.S. person information without a warrant.

This amendment also prohibits the government from mandating the creation of vulnerabilities in commercial products and services for later exploitation.

Together, these changes end two demonstrated threats to our privacy and civil liberties--without any measurable loss to our national security.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

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