Wants to do something with immigration. I know he said he doesnt the senate bill or anything like the senate bill on the floor but he has his committee who has reported off some bills. We may not like those bills that but we think when the senate has 68 members of the senate which has otherwise been deeply divided on by partisan lines over twothirds of the United States senate representing the American Public says we need a conference of immigration bill with a path to citizenship. We believe thats a strong indication that the American People want this done and we hope the house acts. We know the votes are there so theres no reason why we shouldnt get this done. If everyone keeps talking and paying attention to the American People let me also say this is not a challenge to the speaker. This is a suggestion and that is why one of the criterion that we established was that it be bipartisan. Everything passed out of the committee of jurisdiction passed in a bipartisan way in the senate. This is by no means a challenge. The speaker says he will bring something before. We would like it to have these characters of comprehensive Immigration Reform which secures our borders protects our workers , has a path to citizenship among the principles which have been the principles of the House Democratic caucus but which are shared. Let me tip my hat to president george w. Bush. Nobody was better on this issue than he was. He understood it as the former governor of texas and he knew the issues. He believed in the value of everyone in our country. Unfortunately some in his party did not all of his lead the think with the results of the last election and the reaction taken by the senate that we can work cooperatively to do this. Not in a challenging way but in a proposal. One last question. [inaudible] there has been a lot of speculation and talk that it would be some sort of conversation. A. [inaudible] the this is about a path to citizenship. Whatever passes in the house and goes to the table the conference table we would hope would have comprehensive Immigration Reform in it. Doesnt mean we wouldnt vote for a bill that doesnt but it does mean when we leave the table of will have comprehensive Immigration Reform that leads to a path to citizenship. Thats really important to america. Thank you all very much. There appears to be no progress toward ending the Government Shutdown after president obama met with congressional leaders at the white house this evening. The meeting lasted a little more than an hour. House House Speaker john boehner emerged from the meeting and said president obama reiterated one more time tonight that he will not negotiate. Democratic leader nancy pelosi said mr. Weiner and the gop keep moving the goalposts and wont take yes for an answer. Our live coverage of the Government Shutdown continues tonight with the latest news briefings from the day and your calls and tweets. That is going to be on cspan tonight after the house goes out. I have been asked periodically when we you the most afraid during your government service, which my service in government span the entirety of bush 43s administration from january 20, 2001 to january 20, 20009. And including 9 11 and when asked what was the scariest moment i think people are always expecting me to say 9 11 and in reality for me it wasnt. The scariest moments and there were more than one, came in september and october of 2008 when it genuinely appeared and probably was true that the Global Financial system was on the verge of a collapse comparable to or worse than what was experienced during the great depression. The director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper today called the Government Shutdown insidious. He and nsa director general Keith Alexander told members of the Senate Judiciary committee that 70 of the Intelligence Community is furloughed and they are bringing staff back on a daytoday basis based on threats to National Security. This portion of the hearing is two and a half hours. Good morning everybody. It is a strange time in the congress. I would also note before we start that we will not allow any demonstrations. Its a meeting of the senate. I know some demonstrators like to get themselves on television. I dont care whether you are in agreement or disagreement with positions of mine. I do not want people blocking others who are here and as much as they love being on tv and holding up signs i dont want them blocking the people who are here to watch this hearing. This is the United StatesSenate People have the ability to watch the hearing. No one knows for sure how long the federal government will be shut down but i feel strongly the Senate Judiciary committee has to continue its work on this important subject because it does involve the security of the United States. I consulted with senator grassley about this. I appreciate director of clapper and general alexander proceeded to the hearing today as scheduled. Ramps certainly are doing their jobs despite the need to with shutdown of the federal government. That said i have decided to discuss with senator grassley the postponement of the weekly Business Committee meeting tomorrow in light of the Government Shutdown even though we have judicial emergencies. I am hoping that those of us who like isobar on the Appropriations Committee will be able to get back to passing bills and are concerned that we are now in a sober. By law by the end of last month the house of representatives this was supposed to send appropriations bill so we could vote up or down. They have peaked yet to send over a single one. Maybe instead of looking for slogans we ought to pass these Appropriations Bills are voted against them whichever way we can get it done and let people get back to work. I am also going to ask discuss with general alexander and direct your clapper at the end of their statement they take an extra minute and tell us because this will be in the interest of many of us on this committee who are on the appropriations what a shutdown of its meaning and the number of people who were not able to come to work and do the jobs we expect them to do in our intelligence agencies. As we continue because we continue to reexamine the Intelligence Committees use of authorities lets be clear that no one underestimates the threats our country continues to face or the difficulties in identifying many of those threats. We all agreed that we shouldve put the Intelligence Community with the best inappropriate tools to help keep us safe. But there is always a but, there has to be limits on the surveillance powers we give to the government. Just because something is technologically possible and just because something may be deemed technically legal does not mean it is the right thing to do. This summer Many Americans learned for the first time section 215 of the u. S. Patriot act that for years has been secretly interpreted to authorize the interpretation of americans phone numbers on an unprecedented scale. The American Public learned more about the governments collection of internet content data through the use of section 702 of fisa. Since the committees last hearing on these revelations in late july we have learned a great deal more. We have learned the nsa has committed implementation of section 215 and section 7702 of fisa. In this way without a warrant collected content of tens of thousands of americans. Nsa violated a fisa order under 215 records database without meeting the standards imposed by the court. These repeated violations led to several reprimands by the fisa court for what the fisa court called a systemic noncompliance by the government. A series of substantial misrepresentations to the court. Now we have seen no evidence of intention by the fisa authorities but the pattern is deeply troubling. We have also learned that the nsa in 2011 start searching for Americas Communications in section 702 database to database containing the contents of indications acquired without individualized court orders. In this past week and all of you have seen the sun front page story in the New York Times reported that the nsa is engaging in sophisticated knossos of both domestic and international metadata to determine the social connections of americans. When you have all of these revelations its no surprise the Intelligence Community faces a trust deficit and after years of raising concerns about the scope of fisa authorities as i have and others have the need for stronger oversight. Im glad many members of congress of both parties are now interested in taking a close look at these programs in the legal justifications in the efficacy of existing oversight regimes. I think its time for a change. I think additional transparency and oversight are an important part to that change. I believe we have to do more. So im working on a conference of legislative solution with congressman sensenbrenner the chairman of the crime and terrorism subcommittee the house as well as other members of congress across the full political spectrum of both parties in a bipartisan bicameral legislation that addresses section 215 and 702 and arranges surveillance authorities raising some of the concerns. Her legislation would end section 215 involving collection it would also ensure the fisa statute and the National Security letters could not be used to authorize collection. The government has not made its case in bulk collection of domestic phone records is an effective counterterrorism tool especially in light of the intrusion on american privacy. In addition i find the legal justification for this bulk to be be strained of it. I looked at the classified list of cases involving section 215 and i found to be unconvincing. The Deputy Director of the nsa himself acknowledge that at our last hearing a couple of weeks ago that there is no evidence section 215 phone records collection have several terrorist plots. In addition to stopping bulk collection improve judicial review for a think this is extremely important. By the fisa court. It would require Inspector General reviews the implementation of these authorities and senator grassley and i and eight other members of this committee requested last week for the Intelligence Community. Its common sense. Its a bipartisan bill. I look forward to working on this effort with those in the senate and the house and others who care about this and i do appreciate the dash of director general alexandealexande r made in recent months to brief members of congress. I have been hashing out many of those briefings and the move towards more transparency and declassification of documents. The welcome the participation of the legal and technical experts on our second panel and note with particular pride in my alma mater georgetown for his representative among those witnesses. I hope this will inform a legislative efforts. We all agree we have to ensure our nations security. We also have to restore the trust of the American People in our Intelligence Community. Fundamentally we have to protect the liberties that have kept us great in a diversified mocker saint and the envy of countries around the world because of our democracy. Senator grassley do you want to Say Something . Yeah thank you and thanks to our witnesses for what they do for the security of our country and to you mr. Chairman for holding the hearing. Its a very important oversight hearing, an important function of congress to make sure that our laws are faithfully executed although government has been partially shut down due to partisan differences over various agencies we are continuing our oversight work, as i said a very important matter and in this particular instance because National Security is the first responsibility of our federal government. We last held a hearing on the subject in late july. At that time i expressed the view of the reports in the media that called into serious question whether the law and other regulations currently in place strike the right balance between protecting our Civil Liberties and our National Security. This is especially so concerning to the public revelation under section 215 of the patriot act the government is collecting americans phone records and Public Disclosures since her last hearing have underscored that concern. Indeed since that time the administrations declassified opinions reflecting significant errors by the government before the fisa court and implementing 215 and 702. The good news is that these appear to have been for the most part unintentional mistakes that government brought to the courts attention on its own accord. Of course the bad news is that even with all the checks and balances else into the system these kinds of errors can still recurve. Even more unsettling or other airports since july that suggested that there have been cases of intentional willful misuse of intelligence authorities by nsa employees to spy on their spouses and neighbors. These disclosures have created a broader crisis of trust in the legitimacy of our intelligence gathering methods generally. In my view have these programs and more transparent from the start the trust deficit that the American People have wouldnt be as severe as it is now. This brings me to the response which has been very baffling to me. The president held a News Conference in early august a News Conference that should have been held and thankfully he did in which he defended the whole collection of phone records as quote an important tool in our effort to disrupt terrorist plots end of quote and suggested some areas for reform. Since then as far as i know he hasnt said a word in public about these issues. If the president really and truly believes in the importance of these programs pay should be publicly defending them as part of our national debate. You shouldnt be contracting out jobs to the Intelligence Community. Simply put as in so many other areas the president s failing to lead where he wants others to follow. In any event im pleased to have taken a number of steps to follow up on some of these disturbing reports since july. A Bipartisan Group of members of this committee requested that the Inspector General on the Intelligence Community conduct a thorough review of the implementation of these authorities. Initially the nsa Inspector General received a Public Accounting of a handful of documented instances where the nsa employees abused their authorities. It was heartening to see how few cases of intentional misconduct exists but on the other hand its alarming to know the possibility of employees engaging in such behavior turns out to be very real. The nsa inspectors generals response to my letter reflected that many of these cases were referred to the department of justice for possible criminal prosecution. I was planning on following up with how these referrals were handled. The Deputy Attorney general at this hearing the chairman chose not to invite the administration to provide legal perspective on these matters and therefore i will be following up with the department of justice about these cases with a letter to the attorney general today. The balance between protecting individual liberties and our National Security is a delicate one. Reasonable people can disagree about precisely where that balance is best struck. I probably dont agree 100 with any member of the two panels of witnesses that we have with us today including professor cordero who was half invited to share her valuable perspective as a lawyer with handson experience in the Intelligence Community. I welcome them all and im pleased to hear their views as we consider various reforms to fisa and related surveillance activities. Something has come to my attention just yesterday, press reports of 70 of the Intelligence Community being furloughed. Im concerned that if lawyers in the Intelligence Community determined that 70 of their employees are nonessential to the National Security mission the number one responsibility of the federal government, could than the Intelligence Community needs better lawyers to make big changes to the workforce or are you over employed in those areas . I cant believe that 70 of the