Constitution

Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY.) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor during the debate of "S.139, the "FISA Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 2017."

I rise in strong opposition to S. 139, the "FISA Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 2017," which reauthorizes Section 702 of FISA for six years without enacting adequate protections for our privacy.

Supporters of this measure want to convince us a new, incredibly narrow warrant provision actually constitutes reform. It does not.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (NY-10) welcomed Congresswoman Val Demings (FL-10) to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and announced the new subcommittee structure for the second session of the 115th Congress.

House Democratic Ranking Members Eliot Engel, Maxine Waters, Jerrold Nadler, Bennie Thompson, Elijah Cummings and Robert Brady sent a letter to Speaker Ryan today urging House Republicans to join Democrats to fully investigate and address Russia's threat to our democracy and national security. This letter comes as we mark one year since the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's report confirming Russia's meddling into the 2016 election and America's continued vulnerability to foreign interference.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives will consider S. 139, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This bill fails to accomplish any meaningful reform or provide any significant measure of privacy protections. S. 139 is a deeply flawed bill that ultimately jeopardizes the reauthorization of Section 702 altogether.

Twelve members of the United States Senate and 33 members of the United States House filed a Congressional amicus brief in the appeal of the case City of Chicago v. Sessions, which is the lawsuit that the City of Chicago brought in August seeking a preliminary injunction to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from blocking critical violence prevention funds from American cities in order to boost the Trump Administration's extreme immigration agenda.

Earlier today, the Rules Committee posted notice of a meeting on S. 139, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The proposal is scheduled for consideration by the House next week. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued the following statement in reaction to the bill:

Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that he is rescinding the memorandum issued in 2013 by former Deputy Attorney General James Cole that guided the efforts of federal prosecutors in marijuana cases. With the purpose of focusing federal marijuana prosecutions on "the most significant threats, in the most effective, consistent, and rational way," the "Cole Memo" was issued "in light of state ballot initiatives that legalize under state law the possession of small amounts of marijuana and provide for the regulation of marijuana production, processing, and sale."