For far too long the patriot act and the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, referred to as fisa, have been used to trample the Civil Liberties of american citizens. For montanans, the right to privacy is so fundamental it is enshrined in our own constitution. In fact, very few states have such protections, but the drafters of the Montana Constitution recognized that privacy was essential to exercise all of the of the freedoms that we hold so dear. The bill the u. S. House does have some good reforms. It has some provisions in it, including a provision from my bipartisan bill with my colleague from oregon, senator wyden, called the safeguarding americans private records act, which would revoke the now terminated call Detail Program which secretly collected data on our cell phones, our land lines, as well as private conversations. But the house bill fails to enact real reforms to fisa that will actually protect a the privacy of the American People. And we saw what a handful of scornful governmentsc bureaucras did to President Trump when they abused fisa to serve their political motives. Our own government spy on an american citizen, a political advisoric to then candidate tru, with no oversight. And what happened to President Trump can happen to anybody for any purpose, and that is a very serious problem. Republican or democrat, we cant allow the abuse of our Government Intelligence Services to be used for political attacks. It puts our democracy in danger, and undermines the trust and the confidence that our citizens place in these same institutions that are meant to protect them. The house bill failed to prohibit the warrantless searches of browsing data and internet Search History. And it fails to include any meaningful oversight and accountability. We need to get government out of our private lives, and instead prioritize freedom and privacy. We can and must protect our National Security, and protect our Civil Liberties by making targeted reforms that will keep Everyday Americans privacy concern, continue to allow the government to go after the bad guys. The house bill does not go far enough. And we cannot compromise on an issue that is so vital to the very foundations of our government. Montanans sent me to congress to get government off their backs, and am working not only to get government off their backs but to get government out of the phones come out of their computers, and out of their private lives. At the end of the day this is about protecting privacy. And today, today, this date with the b opportunity to get these reforms right. Ive been working behalf of montanans, with my Senate Colleagues across the aisle, to ensure we take a very bipartisan approach to this issue. Mr. President , i do like to speak on the wyden deigns amendment will be voting on it shortly. My bipartisan amendment is simple. It protects all american Civil Liberties by prohibiting the collection of browser data and internet Search History under section 215 of the patriot act. Browser data some of the most personal and revealing information that can be collected on private citizens. Your internet Search History can reveal extremely intimate information, colluding personalm health data, religious beliefs, political beliefs, where you might go on your next vacation, even what you bought your mom this past mothers day. And iou dont think the governmt should have access to such private information without a warrant. And section 215 of the patriot act is is supposed to investigate potential terrorists, not spy on our own americas browsers data. Let me be clear. My amendment doesnt stop the Intelligence Community from doing their job. Im grateful for our Intelligence Community. But it doesnt prevent them from doing the job or accessing the data they need to keep americans safe. It simply requires our intelligence agencies to abide by the constitution and work within our nations laws, which means requesting a probable cause warrant to get this type of information. That means they might have to go to a judge and prove that they have a valid reason to believe someone is involved in espionage or possible terrorism operations. Without my bipartisan amendment the government would be able to access browser data through the secret 215 spy program with little to no oversight. At the end of the day this is not securing our most basic Fourth Amendment right, to protect our citizens most personal data. In fact, recently the Supreme Court found in the carpenter decision ofed the government nes a warranto to access cell site location data because of how personal and how invasive that information is. Well, the current house bill before us does have a prohibition for the collection of cell site location data under section 215, and thats a good thing. But my amendment simply extends this prohibition to include browser data and internet Search History which is even more sensitive and personal in location data. And i agree with many of my colleagues that we need to have the tools in place to help find and stop our nations enemies who seek to harm the American People. We all agree o on that yet we ao need to make sure we are protecting americans from our own government spying and intervening in our personal lives. And my amendment balances these two important Civil Liberties and National Security by allowing the government to track down terrorists while also stopping them from violating the rights of lawabiding citizens. This is not a zerosum game we can can have both. And this amendment has strong bipartisan support. Senator wyden and ive been working on this issue for months, and we are joined by a including republican senator lee, senator braun and senator cramer is a democrat senator leahy, markey, and many more. The amendment is also supported from a Diverse Group of stakeholders across the political spectrum from Freedom Works and americans for prosperity on one end, to the aclu and demand progress on one other. Americans across the country overwhelmingly back this amendment. This is a core constitutional issue. The pride of democrats that brought the democrats in oregon together with a republican from antenna. Montanans and oregonians may haveri different priorities bute all believe strongly in the right to privacy, to protect the our Civil Liberties, and preserving our american way of life. I urge my Senate Colleagues to stand with senator wyden and myself to protect the privacy of all americans, and i urge them to vote in favor of this amendment. Mr. President , before i yield to senator wyden i also wanted to commit to speak in support of the lee leahy amendment. This bipartisan amendment strengthens and clarifies the role and the authority of the anarchy in the fisa court. Unfortunately we continue to see series of abuses and misuse of the fisa process. Most notably the department of justice Inspector General found major, major abuses in applications to surveillance President Trumps temping advisor carter page. This abuse is just the tip of this iceberg. We need serious reforms that protect american citizens from government surveillance, and the leeleahy amendment does just that. It gives americans a fighting chance, and bring some clarity, and importantly, some transparency to the fisa court. I encourage my colleagues to also join me in supporting the leeleahy amendment. And i see that my distinguished colleague and friend, the senator from oregon, ron wyden come is on the floor, and i andi yield to senator wyden for his remarks. Mr. President . The senator from oregon. I call up amendment 1583. The clerk will report. The senator from oregon mr. Wyden propose an amendment number 1583, on page seven seven strike lines 13 of 14 i would ask the consent the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. Without objection. Mr. President , thank you andd i want to thank my colleagues from b montana for our work on this effort, and i hope we can count on strong support from his caucus, the senate majority, when we vote in a little bit. Mr. President , i rise to offer this bipartisan amendment because i think a basic question needs to be asked at this unique time. Is it right when millions of lawabiding americans are at home for their government to be able to spy on their internet searches and their web browsing without a warrant . Should lawabiding americans have to worry about their government looking over their shoulders fromhe the moment they wake up in the morning and turn on their computers to win they go to bed at night to when they go to bed at night . I believe the answer is no, that that is exactly what the government has the power to do without this bipartisan amendment. I want to start by reflecting for a moment on how americans are using the internet these days. They are helping kids with homework, checking out Prescription Drug prices for a sick parent, and they visit scores ofnt different websites. In a pandemic the internet may be their only connection to the outside world. So the question that we are presenting is, dont those americans these are some measure of privacy . Dont they deserve better than their government snooping into the websites they visit . How can this be, that the government can spy on them when they are not suspected of doing anything wrong . And most importantly, how is this okay in america . With web browsing and searches, you are talking about some of the most intimate, some of the most personal, some of the most private details of the lives of americans. Every thought that can come into peoples heads can bent revealedn an internet search or a visit to a website. Their health history, their medical fears, their political views, their romantic lives, their religious beliefs. Mr. President , collecting this information is as close to reading minds as surveillance can get. It is Digital Mining of the personal lives of the American People. Now, typical americans may think to themselves, ive got nothing to worry about. Ive done nothing wrong. The government has no reason to suspect me of anything. Why do i need to worry . Unfortunately, the w question is not whether you did anything wrong. The question is whether a government agent believes they have the right to look at your web searches. In other words, without this bipartisan amendment, it is open season on anybodys most personal information. Now theres a simple solution. Require a warrant. With this amendment the government can go to court, and with a warrant, collect whatever it needs from those who actually threaten the safety of our people. And in an emergency, something i feel very strongly about and worked for as a member of the Intelligence Committee, the government can use emergency provision, collect information immediately, and settle up with the court later. Living once again, mr. President , that liberty and security are not mutually exclusive, that smart policies like this type of amendment help to get you both. Now, a brief explanation of how we got here. Right now the government can collect web browsing and internt Search History without a warrant, under section 215 in the patriot act. Section 215 from the beginning has been the most controversial and dangerous provision of the fisa law. Thats because it is so extraordinarily broad and so vague. Under section 215 the government can collect just about anything so long as the government believes its relevant to an investigation. This can include the privateva lives of many innocent lawabiding americans. As indicated theyey had to do anything wrong, they dont have to be suspected of doing anything. They dont have to even have been in contact with anyone suspected of anything. Theirso personal information in some way, some way, just has to be connected or relevant to what the government is looking for. Back in 2001 when Congress Passed the patriot act americans were concerned about the government collecting their liberia borrowing records about a war. My colleague, the president of the senate, might remember because this is nationwide. People were up in arms about the prospect of the government looking at liberia records, the books they borrowed and the like. Well, ill tell you something. What we were talking about hee today, looking at web history, it is thousands of timesor more invasive of privacy than the liberia records that americans were concerned about years ago. And there is, regrettably, and long history of abuse in section 215. A few years ago the government decided it could you section 215 to justify the collection of every americans own records. The government secretly decided phone records of millions of innocent lawabiding americans were again somehow connected, somehow relevant to something the government wanted and wanted to get it without a warrant. It was only when this abuse was publicly revealed that Congress Step in and begin reining in the governments phone record collection. Now, the Supreme Court did determine recently that physical tracking of americans as they move around requires a warrant. And in this bill Congress Finally is getting around to stopping the government from using section 215 to collect warrant less warrantless data. But the irony is, and i say this to my colleagues because of this unique time, the irony is now the americans have been asked to stay home and not move around so as to help our country fight this unprecedented contagion, they are more vulnerable to abuse of surveillance than ever before. I thinknk thats wrong. People today, whether they are in north dakota, washington state, montana, oregon, in our home state, people are at home and they are living their lives online. Now more than ever i would say to senators of both political parties, because ive long felt that these issues were fundamental, fundamental to ensuring that we prove, as i stated earlier, that liberty and security are not mutually exclusive. Smart policies give you both and not so smart policies dont give you either. During this pandemic americans deserve assurances that the government isnt spying on them as they are home where they think theyre going to have some measure of privacy, and probably until they heard this debate, didnt know the government could spy on them at home and move around the internet. Americans deserve to know at this unique time that the government is not engaged in digital tracking of their personal lives. The warrantless collection of americans web browsing history offers endless opportunities for abuse. Donald trump has called for an investigation into his political enemy. Attorney general barr has injected himself into the political personal interest of donald trump hollywood take us for some innocent americans web browsing history to be deemed relevant to an investigation, and the governments off to the races collecting all of that personal information. And then it wouldnt even matter whether the web browsing history had anything to do with the original goal of the investigation. Or any number of reasons, the web browsing history of that innocent american could reveal potentially such embarrassing information that that person would be humiliated, humiliated foril years two, and, of course, for years to come and, of course, could be used against him or her. This is not a partisan proposition. Any administration, given the direction of the law absent this amendment could be tempteded to collect the web browsing and internet Search History of political enemies, politicians, activists, journalists. And im just, before we wrap up, go to touch on some of the arguments against this amendment, because having served on the Intelligence Committee and on follow these issues carefully, andin barely at some point in this discussion someone is going to come into this bipartisan amendment is going to be pretty much the end of westernt. Civilization as we knw it we wont be safe. Attack on to protect our liberties, its going to sell all kinds of arbitrary policies i just want to show how those arguments dont hold water. The first argument is that the government needs this information before it can get a warrant. But without web browsing history, theres still plenty of Information Available to the government even without a warrant, phone and email metadata, prescription data, subscription data, medical records. But the biggest response of this argument is thatgu its congress responsible to determine when some information is so sensitive that it requires a warrant in this bill. That was a done with respect to geolocation information. I believe digital tracking of innocent americans demands the same protection. And let me say as they did earlier. When there is an emergency and something that ive made a priority in my work on the intelligenceov committee, the government can go get information immediately and then come back to the court later on and settle up here the other argument i imagine will here is this amendment could create protections for americans that dont exist in the criminal context. The problem with that argument is congress is at legislate on the criminal law right now. But it does have the unique opportunity to prevent intrusive surveillance of americans and prevent abuses. En mr. President , fisa requires an extra layer of protection. Thats because unlike criminal law, fisa is secret. Its also a not adversarial concept relies on government representations as we learned from Inspector General a