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>> translator: you represent 19 countries assembled, united with friends in order to celebrate reconciliation, breathing in, -- reunion, the tribute and i must say all of the veterans that are here with us today and i wish to welcome our veterans who are living witnesses of what happened here 1944. [applause] [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: this ceremony -- unique because the magnitude

is exceptional because of the [inaudible] and it is exceptional in this very time of the time when we are meeting together. it is a duty of memory for all of the victims, whether military or civilian, whether allied were also even here, the german victims. [applause] [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: we also wish to convey the message through the ceremony today and through the persons who participate -- it is

a requirement for the united nations tha but it intervene wherever necessary for collective security. it is a message to enable peace after having been [inaudible] through the first half of the century. 70 years ago before this very beach, thousands of young soldiers jumped in the water towards german defense. take or leave a year or two and at that time who could ever dared think that being 20 was the best time in life.

20 was the age of duty, the age of sacrifice. they were called, they were afraid. in 1944 it was a battle of explosion. the quiet waters that we see today was filled with bodies and reddened by the blood of the fighters. what did these young men had in mind in the face of this fear and trial? they surely had in mind their loving mother and worried fath

father, those so close in their life. however, the young man in the middle of this did not hesitate for a second. they moved forward. they moved forward and they defy the bullets and shells, they moved forward in order to shatter the regime [inaudible] they moved forward and kept moving forward to free us at long last. among them were the members of the battalion, a small battalion, 177 frenchmen. [applause]

[speaking in native tongue] >> translator: 177 brave men who enabled friends to free france. they were headed by philippe kahn and they made a commander of the special brigade. of the 177, 34 would be killed or injured in normandy. they were small in number but creating value. a bit further down and higher number that landed the division they were in charge of taking over the beach for the american

forces which paid a heavy tribute when they landed on the beach. each soldier that stepped foot in 1944 on the omaha beach is a hero. yes, all of them are heroes and kept on the moving and moving forward for the sake of our freedom. [applause] in harmony debate co- -- normandie we see the greatest battle in history, 5,000 ships,

10,000 aircraft, 140,000 soldiers follow british, canadian and american. the 26th of june, 3,000 soldiers perished. 3,000 were killed. but the soldiers coming from the sea succeeded. they stepped foot on french soil. on the sixth of june, 1944, they started liberating france. and there is a bright light of hope that rose on europe. on the beaches of normandy extolled the wonders the memory of the very harsh and uncertain struggle. a decisive struggle. on these peaceful beaches of normandy is still lingers the

soul of the fighters that gave their life to free europe. on these beaches, the quiet beaches still blows regardless of the passing of time, still blows the wind of freedom and it still blows today. this is why i wish on behalf of france that the beaches would be listed among the world heritage. [applause] because here we are standing on a global heritage, a world heritage we want to recall the

sacred nature of these places, and we want to preserve them forever and to be able to welcome new generations that would want to visit b's places and would want to understand how things happen and how they are faced in 1944. survivors are here with us today in the very spot where they were 70 years ago, where they struggled, where they were wounded. on behalf of france, we welcome all of the veterans in the present today. thank you for being here and there in the summer of 1944 and thank you for still being with

us on the sixth of june, 2014 and you will still be here in your mind and soul will always be on the beaches. [applause] [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: i would like to express my gratitude to all fighters who have left us, american, british, canadian, polish and all citizenships and nationalities that for the allies. and if we can live in peace today, we can live the security if we can live in the sovereignty by the law that we decide and voted it is those that gave their life.

and i want to affirm on this very beach the crowded tube debate gratitude will never die. [applause] in coming here, regardless of how old or young we are and regardless of who we are and where we come from, we are all very struck by the same emotions. it's still strikes us today when we move from place to place and sometimes from the cemetery to cemetery is actually the courage of the soldiers that fought here. the courage of the paratroopers who jumped in the middle of the night to prepare the attack. the courage of the rangers that took over. the courage of the british

soldiers. the courage of the general who boosted his men that landed on all the hot beach and were mailed in the sand by the violent fire. the kurds of all of these men from all over the world to conquer meet her after meter the doom and also the courage of the french resistance that aided the success in the operation and who joined in. [applause] and the courage of the civilian populations of normandy who suffered the bombing, who suffered considerable loss in who didn't know whether they should show pain or joy, the pain of losing their dear ones or the joy of having conquered

their freedom. and here i want to pay tribute to the courage of the army in the face of 160 german divisions who were able to push them back and to defeat them. [applause] and once again, this can never be overstated the contribution of the people of what was called the soviet union. we also must acknowledge what these people did for our freedom, and for the victory. [applause] last thing, i wish to pay tribute to the courage of the germans that were the victims.

they were led into the war that wasn't there that would have never been there, and we really want to pay homage to all of the victims. [applause] [inaudible] -- which we should always keep in mind in all circumstances, freedom and struggle. freedom isn't something that should be granted as some people think to believe. it isn't as natural as the air that we breathe. some people think we shouldn't even think about it. however it is only a struggle.

there will always be men and women who defend or conquer freedom. 70 years after d-day, freedom is still in many countries and regimes on this planet. here on the sixth of june, 1944, on the beaches 70 years ago, democracy united to fight for a just cause. this just cause is still ours today. today it is no longer the allied forces, which should stand up to fight for freedom which threaten it. it is the united nations, the united nations should be up to the mission they were entrusted with in the war, and they should

really ensure ever security, our collective security. and i would refer to the current soldiers, fighters and civilians populations. courage is something in the war and necessary in war, but courage and peace is just as crucial. of those that landed here 70 years ago, what really motivated them but also they were motivated in the idea that they had in common their own share regardless of the nationality. when they stepped foot on these beaches, they had a dream in their midst. in 1944 it seemed out of reach. but it sheds light on the

consciousness. what was the dream about? it was about the promise of the tierney and the war but it was also the dream of a society that would be more fraternal. the particular ambition was to years before the heads of the war which decided the operation. [inaudible] it was the point to free europe and reached the peace and defeat the charter that called the determination to achieve the collaboration with all nations in order to guarantee the economic progress in the social

security. in the united ending they had adopted the declaration said that all human beings have the right to pursue the development and freedom and dignity and chances. this message still is an obligation for us. but here there was a dream and a determination that eradicate evil that had been since the beginning and justice and oppression. ladies and gentlemen, all of us in the government and officials,

civilians, yes we still have to do our duty, we still have to keep and preserve this heritage that was given. we still have to ensure the progress of the people of the european union and strengthen the role of the united nations. we have a duty to see to it that human rights are complied with and especially the rights of women are in slaved over the worlall over theworld and that r all of us. [applause] it is also our duty to ensure peace around the world and if the head of the government's meant it would also serve peace wherever it is to attend to find

solutions and get settlements so that conflicts do not turn, our duty is to fight against extremists, fundamentalists, nationalists. to us, to all of us it is up to us to have the same vision, the same courage, to have the same determination and the same willpower as those that came here 70 years ago. today our evils are crimes against humanity and we have to fight the humanitarian crisis, the turmoil in the financial system, the peril. there is no comparison that

threatened the cohesion in the nations and sometimes cause conflicts. a very special things happen. the sixth of june is an ordinary day. it's the day that the living have an obligation to remember the dead. it's up to us as representatives of the people assembled here to keep, it is up to us to be true to their sacrifice by building on their behalf and on behalf of the generations of the world more just and more humane [inaudible] and i want to pay tribute to the veterans into the states and

government we are grateful to them for coming here today and we also want to determine that what's ahead of us is an obligation for the world and for all of those that fought on the beaches, and they know that we are their followers. thank you. [applause]

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♪ ♪ europe after four years of the war from the atlantic from norway to the coast of the mediterranean, the sign of the swastika was bringing hardship to the people. in a number of countries the collaborationist working with the enemy. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ but there are men and women prepared for the ultimate sacrifice, fighting them off the

oppressiofighting the natzi opp. political and armed resistance is growing. in yugoslavia, italy, greece and france those that prefer death to the nation have joined ♪ ♪ ♪

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everywhere the allied armies on the offensive and on the eastern front of the germans in february, 1943 the army is almost unstoppable. july, 1943 it was the tank battle. most of the german divisions are fighting on the russian front. in the pacific the american soldiers acted by australians and new zealand are fighting the japanese from island to island in a cruel and all true -- atrocious war. in a canal in 43 and in 1944 the allied forces liberated the philippines. after north africa in july, 1943, the allies landed in sicily and begin the liberation of sicily.

[background sounds] in tehran, november, 1943, churchill and stalin decided to open a second front of western europe. it's to become operation overlord and will end the allied troops on the northwest coast of france and this will be complete by the operation on the shore of the mediterranean. stalin agrees to launch a huge red army offensive to coincide in the landings. the general eisenhower is to be named commander-in-chief. ♪

♪ ♪ is a crucial gambit defense. the coastline has been concreted to form the atlantic wall. from norway to the spanish border, thousands of reinforced bunkers succeed each other along the coast. in france, 59 german divisions, 700,000 men await the inevitable allies and landing.

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preparations for the normandy landings required to be in logistics and great britain pounds of material and millions of men have had to be dispatched. artificial ports and pipelines have had to be devised. every single day after d-day, the chief command planes to land 12,000 tons of provisions and 2,500 vehicles.

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an important role in the landings. by the spring of 1944, the french forces comprised about 100,000 men. the resistance networks supply thousands of pieces of information without the atlantic wall the airports, german garrisons, the deposed, the allied general staff announced every detail of the atlantic. on the evening of june 5, the members of the resistance received orders to go into action. they sabotage the line and the electric cables. for what they've done the operations are totally cut off. the german reinforcement.

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during the night of june 5, 900 planes dropped the 82nd u.s. airborne divisions on the beaches of normandy. simultaneously the men of the sixth british airborne division protect the eastern beachhead and the flyers, drop commanders into strategic objectives not without casualties. ♪ ♪

♪ a gigantic 1,200 warships and 5,000 landing craft deliver 150,000 soldiers to their fate.

[background sounds] after intense bombing the landing operations began on the five select beaches. ♪

♪ on all the whole beach the first and 29th u.s. infantry division suffered terrible losses. the first of the assault and down on the beach is decimated and there is total chaos. ♪ ♪ towards the midday after fighting the beach is taken and nearly 2,500 men are either dead, wounded or missing.

♪ on the beach on the other hand the men in the fourth u.s. infantry division take the beach in less than an hour. on the gold and the june beaches the canadian subdivision after very heavy fighting managed to make their way inland. ♪ here on the beach the british division and french rate troops quickly take control. the tanks opened with the minefields. a soldier plays the bagpipes throughout the assault. ♪ the french naval and the commander despite heavy losses

take the river casino transformed into a fortified bunker. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ by the evening of june 6, 132,000 men and about 20,000 vehicles have landed on the beaches. operation overlord has been successful. a strip of land is enough to accommodate the allied beachhead which is growing stronger by the

hour. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause]

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ dothat morning the general

eisenhower announced the landing to the world. >> a landing was made this morning on the coast of france by the troops of the expeditionary force. in the evening of the general speaks by radio from london. >> [speaking in native tongue] the battle in normandy is a terrible one that lasts 80 days and it becomes a tactical struggle for the position. the easy to german troops died into the fields in the countryside and fight. but the reinforcement counted on do not come brought by stalin in tehran.

♪ up to july 9 the forces are outside the massive town that has become a field of rubble. 2,000 people have died under the bomb to. the allied bombing of the normandy town causes 40,000 civilian casualties.

♪ after the breakthrough on july 30 and the battle with the first polish armored division d. owes itself the gates to paradise are open. ♪ ..

>> helps to increase the speed of the allied advance. in the southwest and -- [inaudible] contributes to the liberation of france which is finally achieved at the end of 1944. ♪ ♪ >> allied bombs are transforming german cities, in particular hamburg and dresden into piles of rubble. hundreds of thousands of civilians take to the roads and flee. in march, 1945, allied troops cross the rhine. on april the 25th, the american troops fraternize with soldiers of the red army.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> april the 25th, 1945, is the beginning of the battle for berlin. [gunfire]

♪ ♪ >> after several days of intense fighting, on may the 1st the soviet flag is hoisted. german capitulation is signed on a may the 7th and in berlin on may the 8th. [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> on may the 8th, people everywhere celebrate the return of peace in london, paris, new york and moscow. ♪ ♪ managers. ♪ ♪ ♪ [cheers and applause]

♪ ♪ >> three months later, the atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki bring about the capitulation of japan. the war is over. it has caused the death of at least 50 million human beings. civilian populations have suffered horrendously. the opening of the death camps reveals a new image of hell to the eyes of the world. when general eisenhower discovers the human corporations of the order of concentration camp, he declares: we are told that the american soldier doesn't know what he's fighting for. thousand at least he will -- now at least he will know what he's fighting against.

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♪ ♪ >> never again. even before the war is over, the delegates from 50 nations meet in san francisco to lay the foundations of the united nations organization whose job it will be to prevent and settle any conflicts this the future -- in the future, a task that is difficult, uncertain and as yet incomplete. the idea of european unity is born out of the rejection of war. in 1948 a great congress for europe is held in the hague. it's the beginning of a long and difficult process to bring the nations of europe together in a shared destiny.

promoted by shulman and the other founding fathers, a new europe based on the foundation of democracy begins to take shape. europe will not be made all at once or according to a single plan. it will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity. ♪ ♪ >> since the treaty of rome this this -- in 1957, europe -- ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

[applause] [applause] >> seventy years later, yesterday's enemies are together once again, hand in hand, for this eternal remembrance ceremony. [applause]

>> as gautier and johan necessary learner or join hands, they invite us to echo it to insure that the spirit of liberty and freedom which triumphed on these beaches lives on. for june the 6th, 1944, is a day that has indelibly marked the history of mankind. ♪ [applause] ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [applause]

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♪ ♪ [inaudible conversations]lxñ

♪ ♪ [speaking french]á,

[speaking french] [speaking french] >> french president francois hollande being interviewed there by french it's. our coverage -- television. our coverage here live on c-span2, reaction too on twitter from members of congress, a number who are there. john boehner, rather, saying we will always remember their

bravery, theirmxz sacrifices for freedom. d-day the actual invasion on june 6th, 1944. also comments from nancy pelosi, the democratic leader. a statement earlier today thatç said: neither our nation, nor any nation that cherishes the blessings of liberty fought for, bled for and died for on d-day could ever forget its history. president obama spoke earlier at the event. we'll have that and the international ceremony we just showed you tonight beginning at 8 p.m. eastern on our companion network, c-span, you can also find it in our video library at c-span.org. >> russia and united states is a nation which believes in its mission. and our higgs is similar. we believe in -- our mission is

similar. we believe in freedom, we believe in distributing our core values which suddenly disappeared in the '90s and 2000s. but it didn't go anywhere, you know? because at our core it was still there. and the biggest -- [inaudible] for russia during all those years was the victory day. that is our main national holiday. and that's what unites the whole nation s the fight against the fascists. nation by president putin is that in ukraine those are -- [inaudible] fascists who came to father. and he illustrated that with flags of former ukrainian liberation army who were allies with us during world war ii.

and so he used that to prove that these are fascists who are tighting against both russian and ukrainian nation.ç so it's misinterpretation that we are looking just to protect russians or russian-speaking minority. no. for the overwhelming majority of russians, we are continuing world war ii. and we are -- [inaudible] liberated ukraine from the fascist threat. >> this weekend on c-span, a look into the politics of putin's russia, saturday morning at 10 eastern on c-span2's booktv. live two-day coverage of the chicago tribune printers row lit fest starting saturday at 11 a.m. eastern, and on c-span3's american history tv, the 70th anniversary of the d-day invasion of normandy beginning saturday morning at 10:30 eastern. ..

>> rein in nsa surveillance. privacy groups have criticized the house measure for not going far enough. senators heard a contrasting views from nsa and fbi officials as well as privacy advocates. yesterday also marked the one year anniversary of the first story published on the edward snowden leaks. dianne feinstein chairs this nearly three-hour hearing. >> the committee will come to

order. i want just quickly to set the ground rules for this hearing. the first thing is, any disruption at all, i will clue this room immediately. so please, everybody know that. this is a very serious discussion. it's a serious subject. witnesses deserve to be heard and members deserve to be able to ask their questions. so at the first inkling of a demonstration we will clear the room. and come back when the room is cleared. so today we meet to receive testimony and discuss the legislation passed ip house of representatives on may 22, to reform the foreign intelligence surveillance act. two that legislation, which is called the usa freedom act, was approved last month by the two tmmittees of jurisdiction in

the house, the house judiciaryjn committee and the house hthe permanenhot select committee on intelligence. intelligen.ments on the house voter, the bill was passed by a vote of 303-121, that's about 3 to 1 and it sends a very loud signal, i think, to this house. it was a very large majority voting for it and votes camenal from both sides of the aisle. it the bill makes major changes tod existing intelligence programs conducted under the foreignjor o intelligence surveillance act, or what we call fisa. under then intelligence surveillance act, .r what we call fisa first, the house bill will and nsa collection of telephone by reference to the business records provision in the usa patriot act.

the program has been approved more than 37 times by the fisa court and upheld a further three times by other federal courts. i happen toelieve iis i happen to believe it is lawful and that it has been effective, but i recognize that the situation is such that change s needed. the house bill replaces nsa's acquisition of call records with a process by which the government can all gain a fisa court order that would compel telecommunications providers to conduct specific queries of the phone metadata that they possess. the government would be required to show that the information sought is relevant to an authorized investigation and that there is a reasonable articulable suspicion that the phone numbers at issue are associated with a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. the government would obtain only those records related to

telephone calls of the individual of interest. unlike nsa's current practice, again, authorized repeatedly by the fisa court, this legislation would restrict the queries of phone records to two hops instead of three. the bill prohibits the government from acquiring, through this authority, the names of people involved, their location, or the content of their communication. the result of this legislation would be to reduce by a significant extent the amount of information in the possession of the government, the vast majority of which would never be seen by nsa personnel. some information of intelligence value will be lost, given that telecommunications companies may not all retain their records for the five years that nsa does,

and by limiting query results to two hops rather than three hops. however, the nsa has told this committee that the intelligence value of information obtained from a third hop and from records more than 18 to 24 months old has been relatively limited. as with other titles of fisa, the house bill would provide liability protection for companies that provide information required under the court's order. it would also allow the attorney general to authorize an order in case of emergency when there is not sufficient time to go to the fisa court. the same limitations and protections are in place here as in other parts of fisa. in addition, the bill prohibits the government from conducting

any bulk collection under the business records authority in fisa, the pen register/trap and trace authority, and through the use of national security letters. while prohibiting bulk collection is supported strongly by privacy advocates and private sector companies, the language used in the bill is somewhat controversial. this controversy revolves around the requirement that the government focus its collection of information on what is called a specific selection term, meaning that the government may only seek records or other information that is specifically related to its investigation. the problem comes with the definition of a specific selection term, which is not clear on its face, and i believe

it is confusing. a specific selection term in the bill is defined as follows, and i quote, a discrete term, such as a term specifically identifying a person, entity, account, address, or device, used by the government to limit the scope of the information or tangible things sought pursuant to the statute authorizing the provision of such information or tangible things to the government. i understand that the definition has to provide some amount of flexibility in order to give government investigators the ability to gather information needed for a case, especially in the early days of a case, without already knowing where there is about the subject. i hope that our witnesses today will provide some specific examples, and if you have better

alternatives, now would be the time to put them forward. we might, hypothetically, have an intelligence source that tells us that a terrorist is on a specific plane flying to the united states, but we may not know their name. it seems reasonable to me that the fbi would want to be able to find out who is on the flight manifest, even though all but one or two people would certainly be innocent. there is also concern that the definition i just read might be so broad so as to allow the fbi to get all flight manifests of an entire airline, for example. and i think we need to look at that. i know that's not the intention of the house authors, and i believe the government witnesses today will tell us that they do not believe the bill would authorize them to conduct driftnet surveillance or records

collection. but i am interested in trying to find a clearer and more understandable definition and make clear that it prohibits bulk collection of information under these authorities. finally, let me note that this committee has been looking at the nsa's business records collection for years. we passed legislation to reauthorize the provision multiple times and debate the legality of the program as well. last fall, on october 31, we passed a bill that would institute a number of reforms to the nsa phone metadata program, and to make a number of other improvements to intelligence programs operated under fisa and under executive order 12333. i continue to support that legislation. but in the interest of passing legislation now, soonest we can

before we get into an election time, that will continue the business records authority past its sunset date of june 1, 2015, and remove the bulk records storage from the government, which is what the administration supports now, the house supports, and numerous citizens and businesses appear to want, i believe we must take a close look at the house legislation with a view to its passage, perhaps as amended, in the senate. that's the purpose of today's hearing comment so i'd like to welcome the witnesses, and they are in front of us for the first panel. james cole, deputy attorney general, there you are. where are you? there you are. richard ledgett, the deputy director of nsa, relatively new.

work giuliana, not relatively new, deputy director of the fbi. and stephanie o'sullivan, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. i'd like to thank you all for being here and after this panel will have a second panel of outside witnesses who i will introduce at that time. now let me turn to the distinguished vice chairman for his remarks. spent thank you, madam chair. i join you in welcoming all of our witnesses here today, and i thank you for providing test which was on the u.s.a. freedom act. our witnesses are very experienced on these issues and expect the committee will benefit from the insight on this bill. while i recognize this bill is gained a lot of momentum, i think we all need to step back and ask ourselves whether all of these changes are really necessary. seems to me that this bill is fixing a lot of things that simply are not broken. for example, this bill in the

section 215 bulk data collection program. all three branches of our government have performed extensive oversight of this program for years and have ensured that it has been operated in accordance with our constitution and within the u.s. law. the program from the -- historical analysis of suspicious threats in an effort to identify emerging and evolving terrorist networks. the system where the state is maintained is very secure. the number of analysts who can't access this data is extremely small. there are a host of multilayered oversight mechanisms in place to detect and resolve any compliance issues. my phone data is in there with everybody else's, but, frankly, i'm not worried. i'm not worried because i don't talk to terrorists. and hopefully i'm not talking to other people who are talking to terrorists.

so what do we get in return for eliminating section 215 program? we get a yet untested, undeveloped prospect of process would intelligence community pinson specific selection terms to service providers and receive the call the detailed records for those selectors only. sounds a lot like a pen register to become which is already provided for in fisa. the only difference is that this new pen register will supposedly have the capability to pull call detail records that are two hops out. i'm concerned that this hypothetical super pen register may cause more problems than it fixes. it could be considered a more expensive than the current system and it will probably also be less secure because there will be more people involved in the process. it would be less capable because

the analyst won't have access to the a struggle data using this new authority, and there will likely be operational delays as the selectors get sent out to the various service providers. the other problem is that the bill doesn't specify a data retention period, leaving it up to the service providers to determine how long to hold the data. frankly, it seems to me that swapping the current program out for an untested system may be a pretty bad deal from a national security perspective and for the american people. i think a lot of us are feeling the sting of the inexcusably bad national security deal that resulted in the release of the talibans life. this section 215 collection system was designed to protect us from terrorists exactly like them. i don't think we should be compounding our errors right now. so i thank you, madam chair, and i look forward to dialogue with

our witnesses today. >> and i thank you, mr. vice chairman. we will proceed with a witness statements. if you can, confined to approximate five minutes and give osha written remarks, that would be awful. if you need a time, this is important, please take it. with us today aren't deputy attorney general cole. he is prepared to go first. he will be followed by principal deputy dean, and stephanie o'sullivan. mr. legend in mr. giuliano will not give formal remarks unless you want to, and you will be able to answer questions. so mr. cole, please begin. >> thank you, chairman feinstein, vice chairman chambliss, and distinguished members of the committee. we are all very pleased to appear before you to expose the administration support for the u.s.a. freedom act which is h.r. 3361 as recent past by the house of representatives. i appreciate this committee's

leadership and eight in civil effort is dedicated over the past year working with us to explore how we can increase the confidence of our fellow americans in their privacy being protected while providing our intelligence agencies with the authoritiauthoriti es they need to acquire foreign intelligence that is so important to our national security. the bill passed last month by the house would make some significant changes to the provisions of the foreign intelligence surveillance act that we believe will help us meet these two objectives. among other provisions, the bill would prohibit bulk collection of information under section 215, the national security letter statute, and the pen register or trap and trace provision of fisa. it replaces the poker club 20 metadata collection program within a frame up the preserves the capabilities we need without the government holding the bulk metadata. to be clear, the president

called for this transition not because the program was illegal or was being abused, but rather to give the public greater confidence that their privacy is being properly protected while maintaining the tools that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies need. the bill would also provide greater transparency to the public concerning some of our intelligence collection activities and authorize the foreign intelligence surveillance court to appoint independent amicus in appropriate cases so that alternative views may be heard. i'd like to spend a few minutes describing some of the key provisions. as i've mentioned, h.r. 3361 establishes a new mechanism under section 215 that permits the government to access telephony metadata without having to collect it in bulk. it includes all of the key attributes that were identified by the president in march for a new program, including in particular a requirement that

absent an emergency situation the government would update the records only pursuant to individual orders from the fisa court, approved with use of specific selection terms for such query, and only if the judge agrees that the government has established reasonable, articulable suspicion that the term is associate with a foreign terrorist group. as i said before, and it's worth recoding cash think repeating, the bill's prohibition of bulk collection extends to all bulk collection of records pursuant to section 215 going forward as well as under the national security letter statute's and the pen register and trap and trace provisions of fisa. and each authority the government would be required to use a specific selection term as the basis for production of records. the bill defines specific selection terms as and as the chairman quoted a discrete term such as the term specifically identifying a person, entity,

account, address, or device as used by the government to limit the scope of the information or tangible things that are sought. this definition clearly prevents bulk collection under these authorities, including the collection of the sort that has been conducted with respect to the telephone and internet metadata. while i have heard people say it would allow the governmengovernmen t to seek all of the phone records, for example, of a particular zip code, that is not the case. that would be the type of indiscriminate bulk collection that this bill is designed to end. at the same time the bill does preserve the government's ability to collect information in ways necessary to identify and disrupt the threats we face. for example, if the fbi learns that an unknown suspect instance to build an improvised explosive device using ball bearings and fertilizer, this bill would enable the fbi to obtain sales

records for those items from particular stores in the relevant area that sell those items. or if the fbi comes aware that an unidentified terrorist suspect spent several nights at a particular hotel, this bill would allow the fbi to request the hotel guest writer for those particular nights. as the house permanent select committee on intelligence noted in its report on h.r. 3361, and i quote, bulk collection means indiscriminate acquisition. it does not mean the acquisition of a large number of communication records or other tangible things, closed quote. the bill's definition of specific selection term recognizes that distinction. in addition to the other provisions of h.r. 3361 would create unprecedented transparency and further enhance oversight. the bill, first of all, builds on what the government has

already committed to make public regarding the use of national security authorities. in addition to codifying the director of national intelligence his commitment to releasing annual figures, the bill essentially codifies the department of justice's january framework for reporting by providers, but has additional options for reporting broken down by a story. also the bill would require a declassification review of any fisa court opinions, orders or decisions that include a significant construction or interpretation of fisa, and would direct the government to make such opinions and orders publicly available to the greatest extent practicable. third, this legislative would create a significant new measure and mechanism to ensure that the fisa court and a fisa court of review receive independent third party input in consideration of novel or significant matters. beyond the existing statutory authorities for providers to challenge orders they receive

pursuant to fisa, the legislation would provide a mechanism for these courts to appoint an amicus keurig to assist the court in the consideration of any application in order or review that prevents novel or significant interpretation of the law unless the court issues a written finding that such a plan is not appropriate. in sum, we support the u.s.a. freedom act as an effective means of addressing some of the concerns that have been raised about the impact of our collection, intelligence activities on privacy, while preserving the authorities we need for national security. we urge the committee to give the house bill serious consideration as soon as possible, consistent with this committee's important role. madam chairman, thank you for the opportunity to present our views. stephanie o'sullivan will now make an opening statement and then we'll all be happy to answer your questions spent thanks very much, mr. goal.

ms. o'sullivan. >> chairman feinstein, vice chairman chen was vice chairman chen was industry whispers of the committee, we are pleased to appear before you to express their decisions on support the u.s.a. freedom act, h.r. 3361 as recently passed the house of representatives. the deputy attorney general has provided an in depth review of the u.s.a. freedom act as passed by the house last month by want to touch on a few key points in my remarks. over the past year the nation as big a case in a robust discussion about how the intelligence community uses its authorities to collect critical foreign intelligence in a manner that protects civil liberties and privacy. if we take great care to ensure the protection of individual privacy and civil liberties. nevertheless, we have continued to examine ways to increase the confidence of our fellow citizens, that their privacy is being protected while at the same time providing the intelligence committee with the authority it needs to fulfill

its mission and responsibility. to that end we have increased our transparency efforts and the director of national intelligence has declassified and released thousands of pages of documents about intelligence collection programs. including court decisions and a variety of other documents. we are continuing to do so. these doctrines demonstrate the commitment of all three branches of the government to ensuring that these programs operate within the law and apply figures protections for personal privacy. it is important to emphasize that although the information released by the director of national intelligence was properly classified originally, that he and i declassified it because the publics interest outweighed the national security concerns that originally prompted classification. in addition to declassified documents, we have taken significant steps to allow the public to understand how we use the authority in fisa now and going forward. for example, we are currently

working to finalize a transparency report that will outline on an annual basis the total number of orders issued under various fisa authorities, and an estimate of the total number of targets affected by those orders. moreover, we recognize that it's important for companies to be able to read sure that a customer about a limited number of people targeted by orders requiring companies to provide information to the government. so we support the provisions of the house bill that allowed of the companies to report information about national security legal defense and law enforcement legal demands that they receive each year. we believe this increased transparency provides the public with relevant information about the use of these legal authorities, while at the same time protecting important collection capabilities. making adjustments to our intelligence activities and as appropriate our authority is also part of this effort. for several years the government has sought and the fisa court has issued orders under section

215 of the patriot act allowing the bulk collection of metadata about telephone calls. the president has ordered a transition that will end this bulk collection in a manner that maintains the tools intelligence agencies needed for national security. we are committed to following this mandate. the intelligence community believes that the new framework in the u.s.a. freedom act deserves the capability intelligence community needs without the government holding this metadata in bulk. the u.s.a. freedom act would prohibit all vocal collection of record pursuant to section 215, the pen register or trap and trace provision of fisa and national security legislation statute going forward. let me repeat that. the intelligence community understands and will add it to the bill's proposition on all vocal collection under these authorities. moreover, usa freedom act makes other im