Bob Goodlatte

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, during my service in Congress, I have had the great opportunity to meet men and women in Virginia's Sixth Congressional District who exemplify what it means to serve. One of these individuals is Beverly T. ``Bev'' Fitzpatrick, Jr. I've had the great honor of knowing Bev for many years, and I have seen just how much of an impact he has had on the Roanoke region. Bev grew up in South Roanoke. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1970 and went on to serve in the United States Army. After his time in the military, Bev returned home to Roanoke. Over the years, he has worked in a variety of fields, including finance, economic development, education, public television, and transportation--impacting western Virginia in his own unique way in each position. He even served on the Roanoke City Council. It would be difficult to convince me that there is something Bev has not done, and done well for that fact. After serving as the head of the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke for 11 years, Bev retired from his post of Executive Director on December 31, 2017. During this time, he oversaw the complete turnaround of the museum. Attendance increased from 12,000 to about 50,000 visitors a year. The staff grew and the annual operations budget more than doubled. Thanks to his dedication, the museum highlights Virginia's transportation history as well as the Roanoke region's rich rail heritage. Without Bev's leadership the Virginia Museum of Transportation would not be the well-known and respected place it is today. Bev was also instrumental in bringing the historic Norfolk & Western Class J 611 steam engine back online. In 2015, after much hard work and multiple rounds of negotiations, the 611 began operating passenger rail excursions, attracting railroad enthusiasts from around the world and across the country and local families alike. It is America's railroad history brought to life. Bev Fitzpatrick's legacy is one of service. His love for transportation and the Roanoke Valley is seen in every comer of the museum, inside and out. I want to thank him for making the museum his final destination in a career of service to the community. It's been a true pleasure to work closely with him over the years on so many ventures that have benefitted Virginia's Blue Ridge region. I know Bev and his wife, Shirley, look forward to some much-deserved time off to spend with one another and their family and friends. Congratulations on a well-earned retirement.

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining on each side?

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa).

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Ruppersberger).

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup).

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I have only one speaker remaining to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot), who is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Stewart).

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as you all know, the Judiciary Committee worked diligently for a year on legislation that does two things: one, protect Americans' civil liberties by requiring a court order to access section 702 data during domestic criminal investigations; and, two, reauthorize the 702 program, which is our Nation's most indispensable national security tool. We achieved that by passing the USA Liberty Act in the House Judiciary Committee last year by an overwhelming bipartisan vote, which is no easy task; however, we were able to responsibly balance civil liberties with national security. The bill we will vote on today was drafted in the spirit of the USA Liberty Act. It is not perfect and the process getting here was not ideal, but the bill requires, for the first time, a warrant to access section 702-collected communications on U.S. persons in criminal investigations. Moreover, in routine criminal cases, when the FBI accesses U.S. person communications that were incidentally collected without first obtaining a warrant, the FBI will not be permitted to use those communications in a criminal prosecution. This will prevent a national security tool from advancing run-of-the-mill criminal prosecutions. These are meaningful reforms. The bill that was presented to us before Christmas with its optional warrant construct was not real reform. The bill we are debating today, however, contains meaningful reforms. I would have preferred to include additional reforms, but I cannot stress to my colleagues enough that our choice cannot be between a perfect reform bill and expiration of this program. The 702 program is far too important for that. With this bill, we can have meaningful reform and reauthorization. In its current form, this bill will pass the Senate. I also want to caution everyone that we cannot go too far in seeking to alter this program. There is an amendment that will be offered sponsored by Mr. Amash and Ms. Lofgren that would prevent the FBI from ever querying its 702 database using a U.S. person term. Imagine the FBI getting a tip from a flight instructor whose student acts suspiciously by expressing great interest in learning how to take off and fly a plane but has no interest in learning how to land the plane. This could be innocent behavior, but we want law enforcement to at least be able to perform a search to see if they already have, in their possession, any communications between the student and a foreign actor involved in organizing terrorist plots. The Judiciary Committee-passed bill would have allowed the search and allowed law enforcement to view the metadata without a warrant while requiring a warrant to view the content of the communications. The Amash-Lofgren amendment, which was rejected in the Judiciary Committee, goes too far and would prevent such a search from even being done. It would, thus, kill this critical program by preventing the FBI from even looking at its own databases without a warrant, rendering it ineffective in preventing terrorist attacks and stifling its ability to gather necessary intelligence. It must not be adopted. I will vote to support this bill. I will oppose the Amash-Lofgren amendment, and I urge my colleagues to join me. Vote for reform and reauthorization. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff).

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King), a member of the Judiciary Committee, to close the debate on this side.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), a member of the Judiciary Committee and the Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, in response to those who advocate for the Amash-Lofgren amendment, this amendment will very, very seriously damage our national security. Section 702 is a program for which there is no evidence of abuse and is used to gather information about non-United States citizens outside the United States. In a targeted fashion, they have to go to the court and get approval for the selectors to gather information on a quarterly basis. They gather information incidental to that. Sometimes there is information about United States citizens. But guess what. The information does not come with little labels attached saying: this is a United States citizen communicating here, or the communication involves someone in the United States. Therefore, it is absolutely vitally important that we not impair the most important electronic intelligence-gathering mechanism that the United States has to keep us safe. Oppose the Amash amendment. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to control the time of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino).

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan), the Speaker of the House.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This amendment, plain and simple, would disable 702, our most important national security tool. If passed, any chance of reform through the underlying bill is dead on arrival in the United States Senate. We cannot risk 702 collection ending. This Chamber cannot be complicit in allowing terrorists to fly under the radar if this amendment kills 702, and I sincerely urge you to oppose the Amash amendment and not lose the opportunity to successfully balance national security and civil liberties, which is what the underlying bill does. We definitely need to have a move toward more protection of our Fourth Amendment rights, and a warrant requirement in domestic criminal cases and a requirement that if you are doing a national security investigation and you find that the information is useful in a criminal case and it is precluded from court are two major improvements to our 702 law that protect Americans' civil liberties. This bill must be passed. It is absolutely essential for our protection. It surveys people outside of the United States who are not United States citizens. The fact that it collects incidental information about U.S. citizens should not be a prohibition on this effort. But if you apply this amendment, you are not going to be able to have our national intelligence officials looking at this information carefully, and they are going to have to, in many instances, get a warrant when they need to act because they think it is a national security concern. A warrant either will be unattainable or it will be in a circumstance where it is too late, and, in both instances, we cannot allow that. This bill provides balance. That bill goes too far. The amendment goes too far. I urge my colleagues to oppose it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. Mr. Speaker, let me pose a hypothetical about the Amash amendment. In the criminal world, if an FBI agent is told through a tip that someone has just purchased unusual amounts of fertilizer that could be used to make a bomb, the Amash amendment would prevent that FBI agent from looking at the FBI's databases to determine if the suspicious individual's email address or other identifier--not the content of the email, just the email address or identifier--is located in the 702 database. What would the American people say if we hamper our law enforcement from protecting them? What would people of this country say if we had another Murrah Building blow up and the FBI couldn't look at even an email address? Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining on each side?

Mr. GOODLATTE

Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate a distinguished public servant, and one of the ``dedicated men and women of law enforcement.'' Mr. Arthur Radford Baker, Jr., will retire from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on December 31 of this year, after 30 years of service. During his tenure at the FBI, Art has served in various capacities. He has led colleagues as a supervisor on counterintelligence and espionage matters out of the Baltimore Field Office, using sophisticated investigative techniques straight out of Hollywood spy thrillers. He has investigated organized crime, including La Cosa Nostra and Asian and Russian syndicates, out of the Detroit Field Office. Art even attained the highest marksmanship award the Bureau has to offer, qualifying for his name to be enshrined on a wall at Quantico as part of the FBI's elite ``Possible Club.'' In large part, though, it has been Art's service to our country as a Congressional detailee that stands out as one his fondest memories, including many legislative successes to which he contributed that are now memorialized and framed as ``redlines'' of passed laws. Art served faithfully for nearly 3 years as a detailee from the FBI to the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations. During his tenure, Art was a consistently reliable and capable staffer and legal counsel, and a great colleague. He was particularly beloved by our departed colleague and friend, the gentleman from North Carolina, Congressman Howard Coble. In his work at the Judiciary Committee, Art staffed Chairman Lamar Smith and Subcommittee Chairman Coble for a multitude of assignments, including issues that spanned a spectrum of pressing matters, including Patriot Act hearings and legislation on child exploitation and trafficking. Art was a dedicated, crucial staffer upon whom Members could rely. After returning to the FBI, Art served with distinction in the Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA). His service in OCA spanned a transitional era in American history, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the espionage leaks of Robert Hanssen, and the resulting reformulation of the FBI. Through it all, Art was a vital cog in our nation's premier law enforcement agency, and a steadfast friend to the Judiciary Committee. It is often said in Washington that legislating is the ``art'' of the possible. How appropriate that we say that today. Throughout his career, Art Baker has been a loyal public servant. For years, my staff has relied on his insight, his wise counsel, and his consistent ability to make us laugh. Many marvel at his various skills and interests, earning him a legitimate moniker as a ``Renaissance Man.'' We expect that the forthcoming stage of his life in retirement will not be any less varied or adventurous. I salute Art for his many years of distinguished service.