[国会纪录卷159，166号（2013年11月20日星期三）] [参议院] [第S8346-S8348]监督改革科罗拉多州Udall先生。主席先生，首先，我想向我的两个同事，参议员凯西和参议员Ayotte致敬，以重点关注人权，特别是妇女可能生活的妇女权利。我今晚上升，谈谈我们的权利法案中所载的权利。对于美国人的特殊关键问题，我希望谈谈改革我们国内监测法的重要性。作为参议员威登和我俩都进入了这次讨论，我们有一个普遍的目标;也就是说，在使我们的国家免受恐怖主义和仍然保护我们珍惜的宪法权利之间，找到适当的平衡。参议员威登和我都是参议院情报委员会的成员。我们已经争论了政府的国内监督机构需要缩小，我们将在日期，几周和月份继续导致这场战斗。作为这种持续努力的一部分，我们最近引入了全面的两党立法，将结束NSA的选择数百万无辜的美国人的私人电话纪录，盾牌美国人从他们的沟通的禁令搜索，并在外国情报监督法院安装宪法倡导者。我们认为，过度侵入性的国内监测计划，高级情报官员的误导性陈述，以及关于秘密法院如何处理秘密法律的揭示已经侵蚀了美国人民的信任和信心。 Simply put, we need to restore this trust, and the best way to do that is to carve out time and hold a vigorous and substantive debate here on the Senate floor--a debate the American people have demanded and deserve. Senator Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced his own comprehensive reform proposal last month with Representative Sensenbrenner. Representative Sensenbrenner is a key figure because he was the original author of the PATRIOT Act. He has had concerns. He has joined forces with Senator Leahy. This bipartisan plan, the Leahy- Sensenbrenner plan, includes many of the proposals Senator Wyden and I have long called for, and we are proud to support this effort. Let me be clear. This issue is not going away. It will not go away because more and more Americans and more and more of our colleagues are coming to understand the true overreach of our Nation's surveillance programs and the effect on American privacy. This issue is not going to go away because we are not going to stop shining a light on the potential for future abuse that comes with our government's secret interpretation of its authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I truly believe that ultimately our efforts--the efforts of Senator Wyden, Chairman Leahy, Representative Sensenbrenner, Senator Paul, Senator Blumenthal, the Presiding Officer, myself, and a growing number of others--will lead to a majority of this Congress acting in commonsense ways to protect the privacy of Americans. We are here today on the floor in the midst of consideration of a very critical piece of legislation for our national security and for the well-being of our men and women in uniform, the Defense Authorization Act. I am a member of the Armed Services Committee. I have the great privilege of chairing the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. I know as well as anyone that this is a must-pass bill. The issues we debated this week related to Guantanamo Bay and the scourge of sexual assault on our military are matters that rightfully demand significant and thoughtful time on the Senate floor. While I think Senator Wyden and I would agree that this week's debate on the National Defense Authorization Act is not the right time for a full, comprehensive debate on surveillance reform, I do believe it is the right time to begin that conversation. Senator Wyden has introduced a smart pro-transparency, pro- accountability amendment, and that amendment is the right place to start. His amendment is based on the work we have been doing for a number of years now. That is why I am a proud cosponsor and a strong supporter. This amendment would increase the transparency of domestic surveillance programs, and I think it should--and I [[Page S8347]] know it will--have broad support in this body. I am going to let Senator Wyden speak more extensively about our amendment, which, by the way, we have also introduced with the chair of the Appropriations Committee Senator Mikulski. Again, this is the perfect way to begin and frame what will be a more fulsome debate over the next few months. We are going to demand this debate because Coloradans, Oregonians, and Americans across our country demand that we have this debate. With that, I turn to my friend and colleague Senator Wyden for his thoughts. Mr. WYDEN. I thank Senator Udall for his exceptional leadership in our effort to put together a comprehensive bipartisan reform bill. I also thank the Presiding Officer from Connecticut because, as we all know, he has really been the ringleader in the effort to ensure that when there are major constitutional arguments put in front of the FISA Court, there is somebody there to make the case for the other side. So I am very pleased that, for purposes of this colloquy, when we discuss the transparency amendment we have filed today with Senator Mikulski, we have Senator Blumenthal in the Chair because he has been an integral part of the reform effort. I also appreciate what the distinguished Senator from Colorado said about Chairman Leahy. We have had a real partnership with him in working on these issues for a long time. We were thrilled that Chairman Leahy went on our bill and we went on his bill because it illustrates the need to try to make common cause around these issues. And as the Senator from Colorado said, we are talking about bipartisan approaches that help promote reform agenda. As the Senator from Colorado noted, it would be pretty hard to have a full debate on this legislation about surveillance reform. Suffice it to say that there are differing views here in the Senate with respect to surveillance. The Senator from Colorado and I support comprehensive overhaul, particularly as it relates to the collection of millions of phone records of law-abiding Americans, which has come to be known as metadata. So we have supported restrictions on that in order to protect law-abiding Americans who have had their privacy intruded upon. But having sat right next to the distinguished chair of the Appropriations Committee for many years--on the Intelligence Committee, and I think my friend from Colorado sits on the other side--we have heard Senator Mikulski speak eloquently about the need for transparency and accountability. My view is that this is something that can bring together all Senators around what really is a jump-start to the later debates about intelligence reform. Senator Udall and I, with the support of the chair of the Appropriations Committee Senator Mikulski have put together an amendment and filed it today on this legislation which takes important steps forward with respect to transparency. The amendment we have offered would require the executive branch to answer some of the major unanswered questions about domestic surveillance authorities and would require that future court opinions which find that domestic surveillance activities have violated the law or the Constitution ought to be made public. They ought to be made public to the American people, and if there is some aspect that should be held back--what is called redaction--so be it. Under our proposal, the executive branch would have the authority again to make sure that no details about secret intelligence methods or operations were in any way divulged as part of this transparency effort. While we feel strongly about protecting secret operations, we do not believe in secret law. The American people ought to always be able to find out what the government and government officials think the law actually means. To use a basketball analogy--and folks at home know I am always fond of those--parts of the playbook for combating terrorism will often need to be secret, but the rule book our government follows should always be public. So this amendment presents a chance for Senators who may have differing views about surveillance policy to rally together behind the cause of greater transparency. I would note at this time that Senator Mikulski has filed an additional amendment that the Senator from Colorado and I have cosponsored. It would make the Director of the NSA a Senate-confirmed position. This is a reform Senator Mikulski has been advocating for years. I think this too allows us to have a more vigorous and more open debate about these issues. The reality is that the thousands of Americans who work in the intelligence field honor our Nation day in and day out with their dedication and their commitment to the security of our country. But, as the Senator from Colorado has noted, too often in the past the leadership of the intelligence community has said one thing in private and another in public. If our amendment which we have put together with Senator Mikulski passes, there would be a new focus on transparency, and I think that would create some very serious obstacles to those who might want to engage in the kinds of deceptions that the Senator from Colorado noted and that we have seen in our hearings. I yield back. And we will wrap up our colloquy shortly. Mr. UDALL of Colorado. I thank Senator Wyden for his leadership and for taking the time to join me on the floor. As the Senator pointed out, we have a broad coalition across both parties and across the political spectrum. We also acknowledge that passing the Defense Authorization Act is crucial. We have to keep our military strong in the face of limited resources and a security environment that is rapidly changing. That is why we are not offering a comprehensive bill today. But we will be back. We want to have a fulsome debate. This is a matter my constituents have demanded that we address, and we are going to work to make this happen. I ask my colleague for any further thoughts he might have on this very important matter because the Bill of Rights is our biggest, baddest weapon. When we stand with the Bill of Rights, we can't go wrong. Mr. WYDEN. I thank my colleague. First, let me just mention in closing that this bill is directly relevant to work done at the Department of Defense, as the NSA is an integral part of the Department of Defense. In fact, this bill already contains half a dozen provisions that affect the NSA in one way or another, so it has been our view that this amendment is clearly germane to the bill. It also directs the Comptroller General to conduct an assessment of the economic impact of recently disclosed surveillance programs. The fact is that surveillance policy does not just affect foreign relations--although clearly it does affect our foreign relations. We see practically every day accounts of how our allies are concerned about their relations with us because of questions with respect to whether the privacy of their citizens are affected. When we are talking about allies, we are talking about partnerships we need to protect America in a dangerous world. Of course, at the same time we are talking about how in a fragile economy, some of America's leading companies, those on the cutting edge of our future--for example, with cloud technology that the distinguished Presiding Officer and I have talked about. This is an area where Americans have a big lead. We do not want to fritter it away, as we also suffer in terms of our national security, in terms of our relationships with allies. There are high stakes here. I am very hopeful we will have a chance to get a vote on this legislation. As I say, with Senator Mikulski particularly, the role that she has played as chair of the Appropriations Committee, I think we have a chance to jump-start the broader debate about intelligence. We have a chance to set the record straight about some of the comments that the intelligence leadership has made in the past that are either wrong, misleading or kind of shrouded in intelligence-speak. This is almost incomprehensible lingo that we try to sort through in terms of what they have to say. I am very hopeful the Senate will want to join Senator Udall, Senator Mikulski, myself--I know Senator Blumenthal and others are interested in it--in taking the next logical, commonsense approach in terms of intelligence reform; that is, to come out [[Page S8348]] foursquare for this approach, which I would like to state does not ban any collection tool at all that is now used by the government, but it does require that there be basic transparency and accountability in how they are used. (Mr. HEINRICH assumed the Chair.) That is long overdue. Let me have my friend and colleague from Colorado wrap up and express to him how much I appreciate it. I note somehow the Presidency of the Senate seems to be passed from one supporter of intelligence reform to another, since the distinguished Senator from Connecticut was just there. We have just been joined by Senator Heinrich, who has been a very valuable partner in these efforts as well. I thank him and allow the last word to be offered by the Senator from Colorado. Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Again, you cannot go wrong with transparency. Transparency is a central tenet of America. In that spirit, I wish to recognize the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Blumenthal. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut is recognized. Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues who led this effort. Well before I became involved, Senator Udall and Senator Wyden have helped to lead this effort before there was any real disclosure about some of the excesses that have been so dramatically revealed over the recent past. As a colleague in this effort, I thank them for their relentless courage in blowing the whistle, quite bluntly, telling America there was something wrong, even when they could not reveal exactly what was wrong, saying the American people would be outraged if they knew, if only they could be told. That kind of bravery and strength has given energy and momentum to this debate. I am chagrined that we will not be debating and acting on it in connection with the National Defense Authorization Act if the present circumstances prevail and amendments are limited. I do believe it is past time to be talking about and acting on those issues, to move for greater accountability and transparency. One of the amendments I have sponsored would call for a more adversarial process, to expose more of the truth before the judges who make these decisions through the appointment of a constitutional advocate. The hour is late today. I hope at another time to talk about these issues in greater detail. But the time now is more urgent than ever to confront and address these shortcomings in the present system. I think the intelligence community itself will help us greatly and it has recognized this and all of America will benefit greatly, including their work. I salute the talented and dedicated members of that intelligence community who have done their work literally in secret for so long, helping to save Americans around the globe from terrorism and other threats. I think we need to change the system in ways that are worthy of the challenges they confront everyday, while at the same time making sure we have trust and confidence in America, trust and confidence in the system, trust and confidence in both the need for and the tools and weapons we use to further American intelligence in the combat against terrorism. I again thank my two colleagues who are on the floor and tell them I look forward to working with them in the next few days. If it is possible to achieve these reforms, so be it; if not, we will continue to work. Mr. UDALL of Colorado. I thank the Senator from Connecticut and Senator from Oregon, the Presiding Officer who has been engaged in this and I know the Senator from Arizona who is here is interested in these discussions as well. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona. ____________________