understand, to encourage and you know those things just can't be measured on a test where you fill in an answer. all of these issues i mentioned, we can't possibly address all of them ourselves, but what we can do is create partnerships and work with other people to meet all of those needs. we can't set education policy by ourselves, but we do have the power to influence and one way is through the political process. we're going to talk a lot about that over the next few days because the election this year for public education is critical and it's also the turning point for the entire middle class in america. the first item on that list, we must do everything we can to re-elect president barack obama.

[ applause ] president obama has earned our support in this first term. he's secured federal funds to keep more than 400,000 educators working with students. he expanded access to health care to some 30 million americans through the affordable care act, which thankfully was upheld by last week's supreme court. he issued an executive order to open the door of opportunity to hundreds of thousands of students who are eligible for the dream act and just last week he led the way to assure that student loans remain affordable. we know the other side will outspend us in this election but we can't allow them to outwork us. we will re-elect president obama. are you ready?

[ applause ] we must engage in the political system but that isn't enough. to help students succeed in these challenging times, we must also harness the strength of our association to take charge of the teaching profession. we need to support our members to define what good teaching looks like so others can't reduce good teaching to standardized tests. we must have a real say, a real say, in how educators are prepared, trained and evaluated. we are all leaders in our union and in our profession. we know how to bargain for a contract, how to mobilize our members for an election, how to

advocate for legislation and obviously we need to keep doing all of those things with the attacks that are coming, we must do it and do it well. but my question to you is this. are we willing to assert our leadership and take responsibility for our professions? the demands of our work are changing as our students change and as the world around us is changing too fast, it is time for us to lead the next generation in educating the next generation of students. i am so tired of others defining the solutions without even ever asking those who do the work every day of their professional life. i want to take advantage of this opportunity for us to lead, and

i'm not willing to ask those folks on the outside for permission. i'm not willing to ask them do i get to do this? if we are not ready to lead, if we are not ready to lead, i know there are many others ready, willing and waiting to do it for us. or maybe i should say do it to us. there are plenty of people outside our profession who have their own ideas about what we should be doing, how we should be evaluated and how we should improve public education. their ideas like privatization, unregulated charters and vouchers. frankly, our current system allowed the market for those ideas to exist. we are part of that system, a system that has not successfully addressed the dropout crisis and

it allows kids who are poor to be in schools that do not meet their needs. and to be placed in the classrooms year after year with the least qualified and the least experienced teachers. it's not enough to say that most teachers are good. if there is even one classroom with a teacher who isn't prepared or qualified, we can't accept that because this country is not about equal opportunity for most. it's about equal opportunity for all. let me be clear. this country is not about all of the educational opportunity you can afford. it's about the educational opportunity our nation can provide not for some but for all students in america. [ applause ]

we proudly stand for equity. when we stay equity, we're not talking about the bain capital private equity corporation. when we talk about equity, we're saying that every child, every classroom deserves a great teacher and great support professional. if the solutions -- if the solutions that others are attempting to impose on us don't work for the students we serve, then we must take the responsibility to define solutions that do work for every student. so let's use our collective power to raise the level of

preparation for those coming into our profession and improve the practice of those who are already there. we're professionals and professionals are always looking for ways to raise their game and we know that ensuring student success in this fast changing economy requires more from all of us, and i know that teachers are willing to take responsibility for student success and they want and deserve a voice in how they're trained, supported and evaluated. so let's demand that every educator including education support professionals receive the professional development and the support they need to help students succeed. [ applause ] instead of waiting for someone to tell us what to teach or how to do our jobs, let us be the change we are waiting for. let's lead a movement for new

academic standards. let us define the multiple measures of professional practice and evidence of student learning. we need them both. and let's learn to use data and technology in new ways. we'll hear this week about a great program in which education support professionals are visiting students' homes building relationship with parents and they are using data to flag problems, design interventions and track progress. we'll hear about a program using to teach sciences with embedded assessments so teachers know in re realtime when students don't understand a point. this is a couple of examples happening across the country. our local affiliates are leading the way to improve the lives of students. that so excites and energizes

me. it gives me hope. i know the power of this union. the world has changed and society is asking more of us. our country needs more from us. but we don't have to do it alone. i mean, why should we do it? because we have each other. so that we can do things together that none of us could possibly do by ourselves. and not only that, but we can do things no one else can do. yes, we need help from parents, communities, business leaders. and we will work hard to create real partnerships with them especially in the ethnic minority communities. but we educate america and there are some things that we and only we can do and we must do them. a few weeks from now the class

of 2025 will enter kindergarten. imagine almost 4 million 5 year olds. can you see their faces? can you see that incredible diversity? the eagerness to begin? the joy of getting to attend school. i know one of them quite well. his name is mason van roekel. my youngest grandson. and just as i did so many years ago, his parents, my son and daughter-in-law, are entrusting him to us. they're putting his future in our hands just as the parents of 4 million other children will be doing. it's a long way from that first day in kindergarten until they

graduate from high school. along the way there are so many things we must do. we must make the interventions to keep them on a path to success. we need to find a way to help them when what we're doing now isn't working because the world is going to keep changing and the challenges are immense. the demographics of this group reflect increasing diversity of our nation. technology, they have grown up using devices that i couldn't even imagine when i began teaching. i mean, i bet there are some of you in this room who are like me when i started teaching we still had slide rules, remember those? and the careers, we can't even fathom what kind of work many of them will do as these students

navigate through this changing world, i hope we'll constantly monitor their needs to help them stay on course. i hope we'll adapt and try whatever tactics are necessary to reach every one of them. i hope we'll be willing to push ourselves to get better every day. i hope we'll do these things because the dreams of these children are riding on us. it's a big responsibility, but it's not a burden. it's a joyous responsibility that we readily embrace. we are 3 million strong and we have the greatest power in the world. the power to change lives. so let's use that power. let's use our power as individuals and let's use our power through our collective strength. the power of 3 million people working together with passion

and commitment to improve the lives of all our students. let's use our power to change one classroom at a time. let's use our power to make public education stronger. and let's use our power to make our nation a better place moving ever closer to our great and noble ideal of equal opportunity not just for a fortunate few but for every single child. nea, we educate america. thank you for all you do for the students of our country. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> with congress on break this week, we're featuring american history programs in prime time.

starting at 8:00 eastern, francis o'brien, chief of staff to the house judiciary chair in 1974 and at 10:00 p.m. eastern, a senior member of the committee during the investigation. american history tv in prime time all this week on c-span3. >> the life of a sailor includes scrubbing the deck in the morning, working on the sails, climbing the loft but by the end of the day you're ready for rest. you don't get a full eight hours of sleep aboard a ship like "constitution" it's four hours on and four hours out. >> this weekend on american history tv, the life of an enlisted man aboard the "uss constitution" during the war of 1812. >> the sailor lived in fear. it was always carried by a petty officer in a bag and thing sailor never wanted to see was a petty officer getting ready for

a flogging. don't let the cat out of the bag. you don't want to see them come out of the bag for a flogging. >> that's sunday at 7:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. also this weekend, more from the contenders. our series of key political figures who ran for president and lost but changed political history. sunday 1928 democratic presidential candidate former new york governor al smith. >> up next, a house judiciary subcommittee hearing on the act that expanded the government's ability to spy on foreign nationals. witnesses including the former homeland adviser to george w. bush and an official from the american civil liberties union. the supreme court has agreed to hear a legal challenge to the law in its next term. it expires at the end of the year. from capitol hill, this hearing is about an hour and 20 minutes. >> the subcommittee will be in order.

today's hearing examines the fisa act of 2008 which is set to expired at the end of the year. foreign intelligence act was to provide procedures for the domestic collection of foreign intelligence. in the 40 years since fisa's enactment, communications technologies have changed dramatically and revolutionized the transmission of international communications. the shift from wireless satellite communications to fiber-optic wire communications altered the manner in which foreign communications are transmitted. the use of wire technology, to transmit a phone call that takes place overseas at the unintended consequence of requiring the government to obtain an individualized fisa court order to monitor foreign communications by non-u.s. persons. in 2008, congress passed and the president signed the bipartisan fisa amendments that update

foreign intelligence laws the it permits the attorney general and the director of national intelligence to target persons reasonably believed to be located outside of the u.s. to acquire foreign intelligence information. the act requires prior court approval of all government surveillance using these authorities including court approval of the government's targeting and minimumization procedures. the fisa amendments act strengthens civil liberties for u.s. citizens by requiring the government to obtain an individualized and target them anywhere in the world to a afire quire foreign surveillance information. foreign surveillance under the fisa amendments act is subject to extensive oversight by the administration in congress. every 60 days the justice department and director of national intelligence conduct reviews of the surveillance

conducted. in addition the attorney general and dni conduct detailed assessments of compliance with court approved targeting and minimumization procedures and provide these assessments to congress twice a year. the administration is required to submit to intelligence committees the copy of any fisa court order, opinion, or decision and the accompanying pleadings, briefs and other memorandum of law relating to a construction or interpretation of any provision of fisa. the obama administration supports reauthorization of the fisa act for five years. the ni james clapper and attorney general eric holder identified reauthorization of the act as the top legislative priority of the intelligence community and are urging congress to reauthorize the act without amendment. without objection, a february

8 letter from director clapper and general holder and march 26th letter from director clapper will be made part of the record. hearing no objections so ordered. foreign terrorists remain committed to the destruction of our country and the methods of communication are constantly evolving. it is essential that our intelligence community has the necessary tools to detect and disrupt such attacks. we have a duty to ensure that the intelligence community can gather the information they need to protect our country and its citizens. i look forward to hearing more about this issue and thank all of our witnesses for participating in today's hearing. it is my pleasure to recognize for his opening statement, the ranking member of the subcommittee, the gentlemen, from virginia, mr. scott. >> thank you mr. chairman. i want to thank you for holding this hearing on the amendment act of 2008. the act established some parameters for the secret and in my view, unconstitutional

collection of intelligence information that had been ordered following the 9/11 attacks. however some gaping holes were left in what was required to adequately protect the privacy of united states citizens. americans have a right to feel as well as be free and secure in the persons belonging in activities from unwarranted government intrusion and not concerned that they don't fully meet the standard. the fisa surveillance act was passed in 1978. to curb abuses occurring in the collection of intelligence and use of intelligence information, foreign and domestic. it was not passed for the purpose of excluding all foreign intelligence collection from the u.s. but to regulate and separate foreign and domestic intelligence collection. collection of foreign intelligence requires that there is a collection of foreign intelligence that requires merely that there is probable cause to believe that an actor is an agent of the foreign

government and foreign intelligence is a significant purpose of the collection. foreign intelligence collection is only a significant purpose of the collection and we are left to wonder what is the primary purpose of information gathering? with the patriot act, we headed members of the organizations and terrorists to the low threshold for collecting intelligence. fisa recognizes that it falls under the requirements of fourth amendment when rights of u.s. persons are implicated. such a low threshold for intelligence with a low threshold diligent oversight and reporting is required to ensure that the collection is not for a broader practice than is necessary to achieve the goals. we should not be surveilling americans by this low standard without some significant oversight. that's why we need clear

standards that are rigorously enforced. the foreign surveillance court was created to oversee the operations of foreign intelligence gathering and i expect that the court is doing a good job and may be doing a good job within its authority, but it operates in secrecy. i believe that the public has a right to know from laws and policies and reports on their implementation that the government is being held accountable for the constitution and the laws. i do not believe that the faa provides assurances to the public in neither are the areas. i do not believe they meet the needs of technology, but the likewise need to protect privacy when technology advances. the 1978, there is little american communication to and from foreign countries compared to the constant borage of e-mail, phone calls and other electronic communications.

what was rare is now common place.is now common place.nis now common place. is now common place.19is now common place.7is now common place.8is now common place. is now common placplace. the faa processes a result in massive amounts of information with an untold amount affecting americans in america. when we talk about collection of data, it's not just computers, it's the government officials who may be your neighbors. when you spread it around to other agencies, you may be talking about other neighbors who are getting access to your private information. the primary requirements of the fourth amendment are probable cause, warrants and particularities and conduct and place. it is not clear the standards are being met when required under the faa's current structure. we hear complaints that it is

too burdenonsome for the government to go through the procedures required and we have to give up our privacy for greater safety. we're reminded of ben franklin's comment that those who would give up the liberty to purchase temporary safety and neither the government's press for accomplish the authorized purposes or the ease by which you can get the information should lessen the protections and emergency procedures are provided under the constitution and under the faa, but the exception should not be the rule. i look forward to the testimony by witnesses and where they draw the lines between the insurances the public is entitled to under the constitution and the legitimate needs of the government to do its job. thank you, mr. chairman. >> the chair recognizes the ranking member of the full committee, the gentleman from michigan. >> this is a sensitive discussion as we all know.

the fourth amendment is critical, and i don't think that the supreme court, the courts have not finally ruled on what's going on. i come to this hearing disturbed by how little we know and how much more we need to know, and i'm glad that we're going to have a closed door hearing in the neat future and i hope that they will be productive in terms of settling some of the lack of information that we have about this subject. and so i guess it's going to be legitimate for us to ask how much do we need to know, how

much can we talk about publicly, and how do we make sure that quite frankly fisa is not out of control. at this point we don't have any way of knowing that. one of the problems is the so-called minimization strategy. i think we need to strengthen minimization and to make sure that this is a very understandable fisa operation. that is constitutional.

right now they hope they they will support or lead and we need to talk to fisa officials. and the whole idea of pulling a hearing about fisa and nobody from fisa is here. we want to talk to the director publicly or privately. i haven't had that opportunity yet and i hope that the members of the committee share in my desire to do that. so i will put the rest of my statement into the record. >> objection. >> i would hope that my dear

friend bobby scott will not support ben franklin's motto and take it too seriously. we will end up in a worse situation than we are now. i yield back the balance of my time. >> i thank the gentleman. let me say for those who missed it, this is a rare chance to see bipartisanship in action. you have republicans supporting the obama administration and democrats criticizing the obama administration. i hope that everybody in the room duly notes that. i would point out that since the faa amendments of 2008, there has been no federal court to my knowledge that has declared any part of the faa amendments unconstitutional on fourth amendment grounds.

there is a case where the supreme court granted certiorari called a clapper versus amnesty international. but that is on the question of standing rather than on the question of alleged fourth amendment violations. that being said, it is now my pleasure to introduce today's witnesses. kenneth waynestein is on the staff where his practice focuses on the corporate internal investigations. he is also an adjunct professor at georgetown law school. he serves as an assistant attorney of the southern district of new york and columbia. later he served as u.s. attorney in d.c. and then was assistant attorney general for national security. he served as fbi director robert muller's chief of staff and as president bush's homeland security adviser. he received his under grad degree from university of virginia and theaw