C. Ruppersberger

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to my distinguished colleague from the State of Oklahoma (Mr. Boren), who is also a member of the Intelligence Committee. He has worked very closely with me and the chairman to bring this bill to the floor today, and we thank him for that.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chair, may I ask how much time we have on both sides?

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chair, I have no more speakers, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. First thing, there were some comments that I would like to respond to. First thing, this bill does not allow the wholesale violation of privacy rights. This bill is extremely important to our national security, but also important to our citizens of this great country, our privacy rights, and civil liberties. The chairman and I have taken this very seriously, as have the members of our caucus. We know this is not a perfect bill--there will probably be additional changes. We will have more debate later on this afternoon. Now, some of the things I want to address. During the drafting of this legislation we put forward a wide range of privacy protections. We worked for the last year with the White House, privacy groups, and business groups to come to a coalition to make sure that we get this bill right. First, the bill severely limits what kind of information can be shared with the government. Only information directly pertaining to the threat can be shared, which is mostly formulas, X's and O's of the virus code. It's almost something that the companies deal with now in dealing with spam. Second, the bill encourages companies to voluntarily strip out personal information that may be associated with these zeroes and ones. Occasionally, that does occur, and we have to deal with that, and we'll continue to deal with that issue. There also are strong use limitations on the data. This information must be used for cybersecurity purposes or the protection of national security. The information cannot be used for regulatory purposes. For example, if there's evidence of tax evasion, that information cannot be used in a criminal proceeding, only in national security, only in the areas of life and limb, or for anything involving juvenile crimes. The bill prohibits the government from requiring the companies to give information to the government in exchange for receiving the cyberthreat intelligence. That means that when we pass the information of the attacks--it's called the secret sauce--to the providers, it's only voluntarily. The government can't put any restrictions on that whatsoever. That really means that this is not surveillance at all. The bill does not allow the government to order you to turn over private email or other personal information. This is not, again, surveillance. The bill does not allow the government to monitor private networks, read private emails, censor or shut down any Web site. This is not SOPA. In an effort to improve the bill even more, the intelligence community--thank you to the leadership of Chairman Rogers--has been working with privacy groups, the White House, and other interested parties to address these concerns with the legislation. We on our side of the aisle take, again, this issue of privacy very seriously. The committee has maintained an open door policy and made more changes to the bill to make it even better as we have gone on up until today. The legislation grants no new authority to the Department of Defense, National Security, or the intelligence community that require it to direct any public or private cybersecurity effort. If the government violates any of these restrictions placed on it by the legislation, the government can be sued for damages, costs, and attorneys fees. I think it is extremely important--we on the Intelligence Committee deal with these issues every day. This is a very sophisticated area that we deal with that most people don't know. So we're attempting, and we have for the last year, to educate as many of our Members as we can. But it's important to know that national security is clear--our effort and what we're attempting to do--but also to maintain the privacy, the constitutional rights of our citizens. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chair, I have a speaker on the way. Mr. Rogers, do you have any more speakers?

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to my distinguished colleague from the State of Georgia, Mr. John Lewis, one of the most respected Members of our Congress.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I yield myself such time as I may consume. In closing, I want to say again that the purpose of this bill, as the chairman just said, is very basic and simple. We want to protect our citizens from attacks. We are being attacked as we speak right now. Just last year, it was estimated we lost $300 billion worth of trade secrets. We even know that one country is attacking a fertilizer company to find out how we make it better than they do. This is putting our businesses in jeopardy and jobs in jeopardy, and we know we sure need jobs. More importantly, those of us who work in this field know how serious these threats are. The head of our FBI, whose responsibility it is to provide our domestic national security, has said that one of the most serious threats, if not a bigger threat, in terrorism would be a catastrophic cyberattack. We've already talked today about what that would be. We have Secretary Napolitano, the Director of Homeland Security, who has said the same thing: that it is one of the most serious issues our country has to deal with. It's unfortunate, but most of our citizens aren't aware of how serious this threat is. So we've attempted to allow our intelligence community, which is one of the best in the world, to have the ability to see these threats coming in from other countries or from terrorist groups and to be able right now to give this information over to the private sector to protect us, you, me, our businesses. That's what this bill does. Nothing more. What we're attempting to do is to move the bill and get the bill to the Senate. We can always do better in the area of privacy and civil liberties, and we're going to continue to do that. We can always do better in the area of homeland security and go further to protect those institutions and our grid systems and that type of thing; but this is the start, because the one thing that now is stopping our country and is stopping us from protecting our citizens is this Congress. This Congress needs to pass this bill now. We need to move forward. We need to get it to the Senate. We need to start working with the Senate. Then hopefully we'll deal and work very closely with the White House and find a bill so that we can protect our citizens and also protect our civil liberties and privacy. I also understand Mr. Lewis. We all respect him and what he has gone through. As a former prosecutor and lawyer who has worked on many search and seizure warrants and that type of thing, I can tell you this: there are no violations in this bill at all. That is not what this bill is about. If it were, I wouldn't be in favor of it. I thank you, Mr. Rogers, for your cooperation and for working with us in this bipartisan manner. It is a very serious issue. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chair, I claim time in opposition to the amendment; however, I do not oppose the amendment.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I agree with Mr. Issa's comments. This is a joint amendment of Mr. Rogers and me. The amendment would make it clear that while FOIA exemption protects information obtained under the bill, regulatory information required by other authorities remains subject to FOIA requests. The chairman and I agree the law should not create a broad change. The type of information that is available under the Freedom of Information Act, we have a responsibility to protect classified information from disclosure, but we also understand the need to keep information open to the public. The amendment makes clear that information available under other authorities remains subject to FOIA, and I urge all Members to support this bipartisan amendment.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I yield to the gentleman from Utah.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I rise to claim time in opposition, but I do not oppose the amendment.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson). He is on the Intelligence Committee and also a sponsor of this amendment.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment; although I do not oppose the amendment.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. I also support this amendment. It is very important. It's another example of what we're attempting to do to protect the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens but yet have a bill that we clearly need to protect them from a national security perspective. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Madam Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment, but I do not oppose the amendment.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. As we said before, our bill is extremely limited, and we're attempting again to allow our government, our intelligence community, to give the information that's necessary to protect our citizens from these cyberattacks. Ours is the most active bill that is out there now. Our bill, hopefully, will pass and go to the Senate, and there will be a lot more negotiation. But there is a lot of work to do in other areas, too, such as Homeland Security; and I know there are other issues involved in the Homeland Security markup, I know that there are issues involving Judiciary. I can say this: I know that the chairman and I for 1 year now have worked very openly with every group that we think would be involved in this bill. Because of different positions taken, including HLU, we listened. This bill is better, and we hope that it passes. So we clearly will work with you, but we on the Intelligence Committee are very limited to our jurisdiction, and that's why a lot of these issues we can't deal with other than what is in our bill right now. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to recognize Mrs. Marlene Greenebaum, who will be honored at the Centennial Celebration of Hadassah for her many contributions to medical, communal and Jewish causes in Baltimore and beyond American borders. Mrs. Greenebaum is one of Baltimore's most well-known and well- respected philanthropic leaders. Her civic endeavors include serving as president of the Oheb Shalom Sisterhood as well as president of Miriam Lodge. In addition, since her diagnosis with breast cancer more than 20 years ago, Mrs. Greenebaum has dedicated each and every day to helping treat and research life-threatening disease so that others can enjoy the gift of good health. In 1994, Mrs. Greenebaum and her husband, Stewart, created a scholarship program for University of Maryland School of Medicine students who are residents of Maryland. They are also the founding donors of the Children's House at Johns Hopkins, helping to build an 18-bedroom facility that provides lodging for families of children being treated for life-threatening illnesses. The couple was recently recognized for donating more than $1 million to the American Cancer Society since 2007. Mrs. Greenebaum has served on the University of Maryland Medical System's Cancer Center Board of Advisors since its inception in 1993. Along with her husband, she donated $10 million to the School of Medicine, the largest private contribution in its history. In recognition, the couple is the namesake of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, where new life-saving drugs and groundbreaking clinical trials have attracted national and international recognition. In fact, its lab and clinical research facility are ranked among the Nation's top 25 cancer centers by U.S. News and World Report. Mrs. Greenebaum was also the driving force behind the creation of the Multidisciplinary Breast Center at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem that bears her name. Her gift is ensuring that Israeli women can benefit from the best diagnostics, treatment and research possible. Mr. Speaker, I ask that you join with me today to honor Mrs. Marlene Greenebaum. Her dedication to quality healthcare for all people is an inspiration. Her strength and courage now give hope to countless other women. It is with great admiration and appreciation that I congratulate Mrs. Geenebaum on her well-deserved recognition and wish her many more years of good health and happiness.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to honor Mr. Charles T. ``Chuck'' Kennedy on the occasion of his retirement with the National Security Agency, NSA, after 31 years of distinguished service. As Chief of the Office of Contracting at NSA, Mr. Kennedy has been responsible for about 36,000 contracting actions per year. His expertise has been used in joint NSA initiatives with other countries and foreign contractors. Mr. Kennedy is also a member of NSA's Power, Space, and Cooling Triage Team. This cross-functional team, made up of leaders throughout the NSA Washington Enterprise, ensures that high- priority mission requirements receive the necessary power and cooling to function. Mr. Kennedy is also a member of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Procurement Executive Council. This interagency team examines procurement challenges, helps streamline processes and establishes contracts. Mr. Kennedy spent his entire career in the contracting field, graduating from his internship in 1983. Over the years, Mr. Kennedy progressed through various management levels that included Chief of the Signals Intelligence Directorate/Research & Development Contracting Office, Chief of the Information Technology Enterprise Contracting Office, Chief of the Mission Support Contracting Office and Chief of the Cost and Economic Analysis Contracting Office. Mr. Kennedy is a recipient of the Meritorious Civilian Service Award. This is NSA's second highest honorary award, given only to extraordinary individual achievements of major significance to NSA, the Department of Defense, or the United States Government. Mr. Kennedy holds two Masters of Science Degrees, a Bachelors of Science Degree and is a graduate of the NSA Senior Cryptologic Course. His certifications include Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act Certified Level 4--Acquisition Corps and NSA Logistician. He holds an unlimited Contracting Officer warrant. Mr. Kennedy and his wife Patti have been married for 34 years. They have three sons and three grandchildren. Mr. Speaker, I ask that you join with me today to honor Mr. Kennedy. His long and dedicated service to the United States government is an inspiration to all of us. It is with great pride that I congratulate Mr. Kennedy on his retirement and wish him the best of luck in the future.

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER

Mr. RUPPERSBERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in favor of the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2012. When Chairman Rogers and I took over leadership of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, we made a commitment to work together to ensure the intelligence community has the authorities it needs to effectively protect America. This intelligence authorization bill achieves this purpose. It gives our intelligence professionals critical resources, capabilities, and authorities. We passed FY11 earlier this year, and now we can see the finish line for FY12. For 5 years, there were no intelligence bills. There was a gap in oversight. When this bill is signed into law, it will be the third time in 3 years that the Intelligence Committee has passed an intel authorization act. I strongly believe that passing the authorization bill is critical to national security. The Intelligence Committee wants to strengthen the intelligence community and give them the tools they need. However, it is also our job to conduct thorough, effective oversight and provide budgetary direction. This bill does that. This bill makes smart choices. It trims and eliminates duplicative efforts wherever possible. We made careful decisions and were mindful to protect the current and future capabilities that protect our Nation. This bill aligns our resources with our current threats and makes important investments in space, satellites, and cyber. This bill is even more important today with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 fresh in our minds. When it comes to terrorism, Osama bin Laden may be gone, but radical extremists still have the United States as a target. Intelligence is clearly the best defense against terrorism, and this bill makes our defense even stronger. This act is bipartisan and bicameral. The members of our Intelligence Committee work not as Democrats or Republicans, or as the House or Senate, but as Americans protecting our country. This bill is proof that Congress can work together to do good things. I fully support this bill and urge my colleagues to do the same. And I also want to acknowledge the leadership of Chairman Rogers for helping put this bill together. I reserve the balance of my time.