When he was chair. Told them hem and that fisa was not used of thely, that the power government overstretched their the other ven when elements of government says, no, even when others told us everything was fine with fisa, it was not until the Inspector General got his report and the truth was known. And i want to thank congressman nunes for being the truth and telling it to the American Public and staying with it when others wanted to lie. Thats why we are here today. Thats why this will never continue or happen again. You know, madam speaker, at the heart of our constitution is a simple idea, the idea of checks and balances. These principles protect americans freedoms by providing safeguards by governments overreach of power. Unfortunately in 2016, those checks and balances were not in place to stop individuals at the highest level of the f. B. I. And Justice Department from spying on carter page, an american citizen, who could have been one of us, but used the secrettive fisa court to keep americans safe from foreign enemies to attempt to undermine their political opponent, at that time, donald trump. After years of independent investigation, we now know the truth. What happened in 2016 was politically motivated and it was completely unjustified and it was never happen again. This Bipartisan Legislation addresses the need for greater accuracy and accountability in the fisa process. It does not damage the legitimate authorities of our Intelligence Community relies on to keep us safe, but it does strengthen protections for civil lits. Among the reforms in this legislation increases the punishment for unauthorized disclosure and unauthorize the amicus to political activity and enhances oversight by congress and creates a new office of compliance. These reforms are an astonishing accomplishment in a period of divided government. But that just tells you how important fisa reforms and checks and balances truly are. Outside this chamber there are quotes from famous americans to dedicated their lives to preserving their freedoms. Patrick henry was so passionate of his defense of freedom he famously said, give me liberty or give me death. We can learn a lot about his devotion. We can learn a lot from those who are willing to stand up to oppressive Big Government who would use an arm illegally against a check and balance just to have a certain outcome in a political race. We can thank those like devin who stood for the truth and jim jordans and doug collins. And we would not be here today in getting a new Compliance Office, a check and balance to make sure what happened in 2016 cannot happen again. I do arch all of my colleagues to vote yes. I do urge that this is a turning point. That even though in these committees, they could have told us and they did, that there was nothing wrong, that we had to continue to fight to have an Inspector General to get at the truth. We will not have to wait for that even if somebody tries to use it in the wrong manner and cannot happen again. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california, mr. Schiff. Mr. Schiff im proud to recognize representative lofgren of california for two minutes. Ms. Lofgren i am especially thankful to chairman schiff for yielding me this time since i will reached a different conclusion on the bill than he has. I would like to quote from the American Civil Liberties union letter received today. The American Civil Liberties union strongly urges us to vote no. They say over the last several years, it has been clear that many of our surveillance laws are broken, but that disappointingly, the reforms contained in this bill are minimal and many cases representing a codification of the status quo. The ac lmp u says it will be a step backward even from our flawed current law. Aclu goes on to say that the bill fails to require that the individuals who receive appropriate notice and access to information when fisa information is used against them that the bill fails to fully address deficiencies with the fisa court that led to illegal surveillance and it fails to limit the type of information that can be collected under section 215, that the bill fails to appropriately raise the standards for collecting information under section 215. And that the bill fails to appropriately limit the retention of information collected under section 215. I agree with the chairman that the roving wiretap provision in the act is important and should be removed. And i cannot support the bill that is before us today. And i say that with tremendous respect for chairman schiff. We have had very candid and useful discussions. I appreciate the effort that he has put into this. I have put in a lot of effort, too. But in the end, we have a bill that i think should not be supported. I intend to vote no with tremendous respect for the chairman and the efforts that he has put into this and i thank you again, mr. Chairman, for yielding me this time. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california, mr. Nunes. Mr. Nunes yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. Gohmert. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Gohmert thank you, madam speaker and i appreciate my friend for yielding to me and i appreciate my colleague, mrs. Ve greens comments lofgrens comments. Any law based on a law is a problem. The law starts with the initial f. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act. There is no attorney. Since i have been here, whether the patriot act or reauthorizing the fisa act which american citizens have nothing to worry about because the only american citizens that get caught up in the fisa court is someone dealing with a known terrorist or terrorist organization. Avoid dealing with terrorists and you are going to be ok. The problem is, i keep hearing this is a good first step. This isnt a first step. This is the last step. And as as my friend says, it doesnt go far enough. As my friend michael cloud said, under the current bill, they ignored the penalty for lying to the judge, which was a fiveyear sentence. And under the new law they can ignore an eightyear sentence. That doesnt preserve anybodys rights. This was not done in the committee. It did not have proper debate. The secret court had the bill pulled away so we couldnt debate it and pulled into a secret negotiation that many of us were not part of. Having the attorney general sign it doesnt work it and shouldnt be a special category for federal elected first. Attorney general stein rosenstein, he signed off on one of the applications himself. Obviously that is not a deterrent. We need to fix the fisa court. This doesnt do it. I will vote no until we have adequate reforms until it does. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california, mr. Schiff. Mr. Schiff we have no further speakers and i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california, mr. Nunes. Mr. Nunes i yield three minutes to the gentleman from utah, mr. Stewart. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Stewart let me state a fact. Fisa has been abused by those trusted with authority and we cannot let it happen again. This is what we know are also facts. Opposing Campaign Paid a foreign citizen to dig up dirt on President Trump. These allegations produced by the way by a foreign citizen known as the steele dosier. The campaign sent these bogus that the f. B. I. , c. I. A. And the department of justice and the state department and the f. B. I. Used this as a secret wire stap on the famous mr. Carter page. The f. B. I. Deliberately hid the fact that these allegations were both known to be bogus and the Campaign Paid for them. The application on mr. Page cited a news article cor baiting the allegations but the f. B. I. Hid the fact that the source of these articles was the source of the dosier. The f. B. I. And d. O. J. Investigators had enormous bias that with words, he wont become president. And timely the Inspector General revealed that an f. B. I. Attorney altered a document to deceive a document. These are shocking abuses of power. And the reforms in this bill will stop them from happening again. Im proud to be the author of the bill. It requires an amicus review against u. S. Citizens and requires a court to require a transcript i have read this fisa application and begs the question to be asked and dont know if the judges asked questions. It requires the government to keep a log that enhances the penalties for those who deceive the court and allows agencies to terminate individuals those who do. It is incumbent on us as an institution to ensure these abuses dont happen again and u. S. A. Freedom authorization act will accomplish this. And let me end by saying this, to those who oppose this bill, if you vote against this bill, you keep the status quo. Fisa remains in place. The ability to abuse fisa doesnt change. Vote yes on this bill or accept future abuse. That is the choice we have before us. I hope we dont do that. And with that, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from california, mr. Nunes. Mr. Nunes we reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. I believe the gentleman from california, mr. Schiff, is prepared to close. Mr. Schiff i am and will reserve until we do. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california, mr. Nunes. Mr. Nunes i yield two minutes to the gentleman from arkansas, mr. Crawford. Mr. Crawford i rise in support of u. S. A. Freedom authorization act of 2020. I associate my comments with mr. Stewart and applaud the efforts of the distinguished the gentleman from california, mr. Nunes, whose tenacity brought this to bear. I appreciate his leadership. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation that makes urgent and necessary reforms to the fisa process which Inspector General found three months ago was misused to conduct surveillance on carter page. This requires to ensure all applications are accurate and complete. This requires a Compliance Office at the f. B. I. Who is responsible to make sure f. B. I. Agents are following the law. This bill heightens criminal penalties to deter bad actors. Finally the bill reauthorizes three counterterrorism tools which are significantly important to our National Security. I rise to support this bill and urge a yes vote from my colleagues and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from california, mr. Nunes. Mr. Nunes madam speaker, just a couple of comments. For some of my colleagues who i know are concerned that this doesnt go far enough, one of the concerns they have is there is an Ongoing Investigation led by the u. S. Attorney in the state of connecticut and consternation that nothing has been done yet. I assure my colleagues even if that gets to a point where people are held accountable for what we believe to be criminal activity, these reforms that are in this new piece of legislation where we opened up title i, we believe that we have all the reforms that are necessary to prevent this mall feesance from happening again in the future. If this doesnt work and if this does happen again, then you will have what some people want, which is a complete elimination of the court and this entire system. I hope that we dont get to that point in this country, because these tools have worked well as along as the people who are using these capabilities dont decide to turn them on political opponents. So i i want to assure my colleagues that these reforms are as far as we need to go at this time, no matter what the conclusion of u. S. Attorney out of connecticut, what his ultimate conclusion is on whether or not to bring charges against those who perpetrated these crimes and criminal activity. Madam speaker, i am prepared to lose at this time. Madam speaker, in closing, the weaponization of fisa as exhibited in 2016 should have never happened and this bill aims to prevent future gross abuses from occurring again. Id like to thank my staff, particularly allen souza, lawyer remarks megan, andrew, and betsy for all their efforts to reach this bipartisan compromise. They worked many, many hours with members of both parties and colleagues o both colleagues of both parties and staff of both parties from both the Judiciary Committee and both the republican and democratic leadership to reach this bipartisan compromise. Im also fairly confident with the remarks that have been made on the senate side that this will be a rare opportunity where we actually pass a bill and it appears like the senate is prepared to accept a complete house produced product which i think means a lot to everyone involved in this process. That rarely happens, especially in this day and age. So with that, madam speaker, i urge adoption of h. R. 6172 and yield back the balance of our time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from california, mr. Schiff. Mr. Schiff thank you, madam speaker. I want to, for my democratic colleagues, provide a reality check on some of what they have heard during this debate. Its important to remember that the inspector genre port which, by the way, doesnt go to the expiring provisions that we are here to reauthorize today, but the inspector genre port found no evidence of spying on the Trump Campaign. The Inspector General found no evidence of political bias, in bias influencing Decision Making in the investigation of the Trump Campaign and its connection to russia in the 2016 election. The Inspector General found that properly gation was predicated that investigation into many of the more than 100 unexpect unexplained and often falsely denied contacts between the Trump Campaign and russians during the 2016 campaign, including a notorious secret meeting in trump tower between the president s son, soninlaw and Campaign Chairman with russian delegation that was set up by a series of emails in which a russian delegation offered dirt on Hillary Clinton to the Trump Campaign and the president s son on behalf of that Campaign Said that he would love it. Nd set thaup secret meeting. Now, my colleagues dont think thats collusion, the american do. Bob mueller, for his part, as much as his reports is misrepresented, makes it clear he doesnt address the issue of collusion, only whether he could prove criminal conspiracy. Its important with that reality check to once again return to the bill before us. And with respect to the bill before us, we do make important changes to strengthen the privacy protections, the Civil Liberties protections. We also retain the important tools necessary to help protect the country, the Business Records exception, the Business Records provision, the lone wolf provision as well as the roving wiretaps, the roving wiretap provision for example, allows the government, when someone, for example, in the midst of planning a crime of terrorism uses phones disposeably and gos from one phone to another, it is not necessary to go and get a new warrant every time they change phones. Rather the warrant can follow the individual rather than the phone. The Business Records provision has also been very important in terms of our efforts at foreign intelligence gatheringering as well as counterterrorism. Those authorities would be retained but new protections would be put in place such that Business Records couldnt be retained more than five years unless certain exceptions applied. Protections where Business Records gathered in the fisa context is used in a criminal proceeding theres notice given to people that theyre being used in a criminal proceeding. Theres amicus authority, so we have amicus involved in a broader scope of cases so that the court has the advantage of independent judgment. Some of those reforms come out of the Inspector Generals recommendations in looking into the fisa application involving carter page. Many of those recommendations have nothing to do with carter page and are longstanding interest of the privacy community in trying to strengthen some of the privacy protections. I want to also take this opportunity to thank representative lofgren and representative jayapal. We worked extensively, have spent hours ourselves, our staff, consulting and trying to make this a better and stronger bill. While i regret that we couldnt get it to the point where those two esteemed members felt they could support the bill, nonetheless, their input made this bill better and im grateful for their hard work and advocacy on behalf of a strong on behalf of stronger privacy and Civil Liberties protections. This vote today is the culmination of many months of negotiations therefore with our diverse caucus, with my friends in the other party who as youve heard today we have strong disagreements over russia investigation, the Trump Campaigns conduct, as well as the fisa process, but nonetheless in the interest of our nations security, we were able to get to Common Ground on this measure. Giving the government the critical tools it needs to protect the country while advancing Civil Liberties an privacy rights. This bill creates muchneeded change to the way the government uses fisa, ensures the government is more transparent and accountable and i urge my colleagues to support the bill. With that, madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro te