similar to the authorities in title one of fisa, section 703 and 704 allow the fisa court to authorize collection against certain u.s. persons overseas. before the f.a.a., this type of collection was authorized by the attorney general and not by a court. the f.a.a. enhanced the protections for u.s. persons by requiring individual fisa court orders based on probable cause at the u.s. person is a foreign power, agent of a foreign power or an officer or employee of a foreign power. as i understand it, most of the actions to the f.a.a. relate to section 702 and would what we call incident ll -- incidental collection. i recommend again my colleagues review the unclassified f.a.a. background paper that was sent by the a.g. and by the d.n.i. to congress last february. that document was earlier made a part of the record at my request. this paper describes the f.a.a. authorities in some detail and it highlights the layers of yoamptd by all three branches -- oversight by all three branches of government. these oversight mechanisms are there primarily to protect u.s. persons, and i can tell you f

abbreviated name is fisa. and when it was written in 1978, congress applied justice brandeis' principles to intelligence gathering. the congress said when they wrote the original fisa legislation in 1978, they really said that justice brandeis, you know, got it right with respect to how you ought to gather intelligence. so the original fisa statute stated that if the government wants to collect an american's communications for intelligence purposes, the government must go to a court, show evidence that the american is a terrorist or a spy, and get an individual warrant. this upheld the same principle that the founding fathers fought for in the revolution, it's the same principle enshrined in the bill of rights, and it said that government officials are not allow to invade americans' privacy unless they have specific evidence and an individual warrant. now, after 9/11, mr. president, the bush administration decided that it would seek additional surveillance authorities beyond what was in the original foreign in

fisa. whether this number is large or small, i believe we must enforce meaningful protections for circumstances when the government searches through its database of captured communications looking for information on individual american citizens. otherwise, by means of these so-called backdoor searches, the government may conduct significant warrantless surveillance of american persons. i believe this current practice is inconsistent with core fourth amendment privacy protections and needs to be reformed. during consideration of fisa in the judiciary committee, senator durbin and i introduced a bipartisan amendment to address this very problem. the language of our amendment is identical to that offered by senators wyden and udall during consideration of fisa by the select committee on intelligence. the amendment clarifies that section 702 does not permit the government to search its data base of fisa materials to identify communications of a particular united states person. in effect, it wou

the act was known as fisa.he government to get permission from a special fisa court if, for example, they were tapping the phone of foreign agent and that guy happened to call an american. in the u.s., you need a warrant for that. president carter signed the bill into law in 1978. it was the law of the land for more than 20 years, until it got amended under president george w. bush. you might remember this. a patriot act and a number of other congressional acts vastly diminished fisa's privacy protections and expanded the goth's ability to spy on you and on me and all americans to tap our phones and read our e-mails. and in the end, you would probably never even know they were doing it. and we as a country, at that time, we had a huge fight about it. it was a major issue in the 2004 presidential campaign when president bush and john kerry. in the 2008 democratic primary, then senators clinton and obama, they fought about it. they even ended up voting on opposite sides of the issue when it came up for a vote tha

the act was known as fisa.rced the government to get permission from a special fisa court if, for example, they were tapping the phone of foreign agent and that guy happened to call an american. in the u.s., you need a warrant for that. president carter signed the bill into law in 1978. it was the law of the land for more than 20 years, until it got amended under president george w. bush. you might remember this. a patriot act and a number of other congressional acts vastly diminished fisa's privacy protections and expanded the goth's ability to spy on you and on me and all americans to tap our phones and read our e-mails. and in the end, you would probably never even know they were doing it. and we as a country, at that time, we had a huge fight about it. it was a major issue in the 2004 presidential campaign when president bush and john kerry. in the 2008 democratic primary, then senators clinton and obama, they fought about it. they even ended up voting on opposite sides of the issue when it came up for a vo

surveillance targeting a united states person for foreign intelligence purposes, it must go back to the fisa court and it must get a specific order from that court. in an emergency the surveillance can commence before the court order is issued, but the government still must have probable cause to believe that the united states person is an

surveillance targeting a united states person for foreign intelligence purposes, it must go back to the fisa court and it must get a specific order from that court. in an emergency the surveillance can commence before the court order is issued, but the government still must have probable cause to believe that the united states person is an agent of a foreign power. what does this mean? it means once the foreign person is targeted and the information is collected, if it goes to a united states phone number, that phone number cannot be used for surveillance without a warrant. that phone number is inadvertently picked up, and it is minimized. it is kept there in case something develops for a period

it will be in relation to the fisa bill or the supplemental appropriations bill. if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 12:00 noon on monday, december 12:00 noon on monday, december >> of the topic that's been on the minds of american parents across this country. and that is what do we do about the tragedies of the sort that struck in newtown, connecticut, to avoid such events in the future. like most americans, we were shocked by what happened. like all americans, we've been discussing all of the various options available to protect our children, and at this point we would like to share our thinking with you. and for that purpose i'd like to introduce wayne louisiana pierre, our executive vice next week we will be available to any of you, so contact us, please, at that point. thank you very much. wayne? >> good morning. the national rifle association, four million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, joined the nation in horror, outrage, grief a

. >> we want to ask about another bill, the fisa bill. we're going to go to break and come back to congress member dennis kucinich who served eight terms in congress. this is his last week as a member of congress. this is "democracy now!" back in a moment. ♪ [music break] >> she died wednesday at the age of 72 after complications from heart attack. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> while the so-called fiscal cliff has dominated the news headlines, the senate is preparing to vote today to continue a controversial domestic surveillance program. in a blow to civil liberties advocate, the senate rejected three attempts thursday to add oversight and privacy safeguards to the foreign intelligence surveillance act. >> dennis kucinich is still with us, outgoing democratic congress member. this will be his last week in congress -- at least for this term of his political life. congressmember kucinich, the issue of fisa. what is this bill and what does it mean? >> what it ref

oh the fisa vote so forth were they saying about five kilometers so this is what it takes. to live and work in the arctic. could help me a little. bit it's been a tough introduction to moment's thought i'd head out into the countryside to meet some animals who are thriving in the difficult conditions. but one thing i was really looking forward to doing up here was running into some oxic wildlife but aside from that it also seems that they might have wanted to exotic guests as well so the rest were fellow watch him hi james nice to me. this may be rather far from their native lot spots according to keep iraq film but cold doesn't bother them at all and they're surprisingly even temperate. of course the traditional habitat of the ostrich is africa these birds can also survive in the north especially considering the temperatures drop during the night in africa so they can live in different places as long as they have enough food. to eat. i think they are getting a bit hungry so what they want is to give them a snack for my code gets torn to ribbons. there might not be too much

we should know how the fisa court works. we should know how many american communications are looked at by the government. people want amendments. unfortunately congress once again is acting at the last minute trying to renew something about to expire and there is probably not the time to do revisions that are necessary. that's a problem here. harris: because critics want this to be revised as you just put it. the white house doesn't. it wants it to pass the way it is. a lot of people are in favor of it because it is helping to keep us safe since there is homegrown terror in the united states and we need to find it. i want to if which have the words put it up on the screen. kentucky senator rand paul had this to say on the senate floor yesterday. and what he was basically saying is that this interferes and disputes the power of the fourth amendment. and that it needs to be changed. again, dan, you say we may not see any changes to it because the deadline is tuesday? >> it is really important to note that even the supporters o

"iithink we ought to know, whether for purposes of the fisa amendments act, - generally, how any americans are being swept up under the legislltton." but thereewon't 3 that got voted down. dianne feinstein, the democrat who committee, warned thha ssedding mooe light on who's bbing surveilled would deetroy the wiretapping program-- phich she saas, has worked well. "innffur--ears, 100 from happening in the united states. some which comes from this program. so, i think it is a vital prograa." conservvtive analyst cliff may says a wide dragnet is worth the cost. "let's suppose you're a pakiitani immigrant, here, you don't have aagreen & pard yet. you call your ncle 3 caught up, and mmybe he's just a tailor in lahore. but if he's a member of the taliian, it's true, maybb theee's going to bb someene in the federal povernment who thinks we need to ask questions f this person." reporter::"but if yyuure the person here talking &pto the uncle in lahore and you're completely innncent, - yoo're still caught up in -3 this.") "you're not caught up in the sense yyu're goiig to jail. you're not aught up i

thank you there are mainly two issues if you put in the question and inject regarding fisa let's put it make it clear our goal is visa through a dream with the russian federation and i have stated it today during the meeting and publicly we remain committed to that goal but we are not yet there but let me just give you some facts about the relations. between the european union and russia .

in the communications of being able to access documents in order in other words if they asked the fisa court for any sort of paperwork and they it gets denied they need to know the reasons why and that's one of the one white essential he is trying to get . some sort of. i would like to say more of a an infrastructure when it comes to trying to gather all this information and trying to limit how much they are able to use when it comes to you know compile information on a specific person i.e. look at what happened in general petraeus probably well except for very interesting and important bill with important implications for everyone's privacy so great that things are filling us in on it as our producer adriano sero. still ahead everything you thought you knew you know you don't now at least when it comes to north korea and fears over its nuclear capabilities and missile program will separate fact from fear mongering that. is right right i mean it's like a derivative of pepper it's a food product essentially. much stronger than anything you'd buy off. our rules of stronger than any kind

fisa, mr. president, this is an important piece of legislation. imperfect as it is, it is what is necessary to help us be protected from the evil that's in the world. we have to complete this before we leave here this week. today's tuesday. so everyone else can do the math just as well as i can about how many days are left. so i ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by me after consultation with senator mcconnell, the senate proceed to the consideration of calendar number 463, s. 3276, that the only first-degree amendments in order to the bill be the following, judiciary committee reported substitute, leahy sunset, leahy oversight, wyden public report,, wiendz back door searches, and merkley which is about declassification of fisa court opinions. that there be an hour of debate equally divided and controlled between the opponents and proponents on each amendment, that there be up two two hours of debate on the bill equally divided between the proponents and opponents, upon the use or yielding back of that time, the senate proceed t

we can't say no to the kennedy fisa i don't know, six months maybe. six months to the day we got a call at home from someone i was convinced was a ted kennedy impersonator. i don't know if any of you grew up in new york or listened to don imus. he had a kennedy impersonator and sounded just like this and so i listened to the message and after listening to it the second or third time i realized it wasn't an impersonator, it was the senator asking me to come to washington to talk to him about doing a biography of his father. i went to washington and the senator and i and his two dogs have lunch together on monday since the dogs came to the senate with him because the senate wasn't in session and they could of rome and play. was a weird sight, believe me. we were brought into the tiny little conference room, the two dogs, the senator and me with a card table in the middle, and the senator who was always on a diet. he would feel better the center he was head the biggest sand which i'd ever seen like a sliver of tuna fish that looked as old as he was and o

the first is on the fisa act. the other is a relief package for those areas affected by hurricane sandy. live work on the senate are companion network c-span2. and discussions continue over the so-called fiscal cliff. negotiations continue. nobel laureate and a burmese opposition leader aung san suu kyi accepted the congressional gold medal in september. she said it represents the aspirations of the burmese people for a democratic transition. we will also hear from secretary of state hillary clinton and former first lady laura bush. >> ladies and gentlemen, the speaker of the united states house of representatives, the honorable john boehner. >> ladies and all men, good afternoon and welcome to the capital. this is a great day for the american people, and we are happy to welcome you here today. gold medals are the highest level of appreciation for distinguished achievement. the first congressional gold medal was awarded to general george washington in 1776 for liberating the city of boston. today, we will present

there will be several roll call votes beginning at that time in order to complete action on the fisa bill and on the supplemental bill. additional roll call votes in relation to executive nominations are possible as well. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate will stand adjourned >> "washington journal" starts at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> you do not always find many newspaper editors embracing this type of reporting. it's not just economics. it is the discomfort that investigative reporting causes in the newsroom. it is about more than economics. it's those people running into complaints of the publisher. and their stories are common over the years. people who are working for the strong upright in that area. >> the pulitzer prize-winning team will take your calls and e-mails and tweets next month on the in depth. they began their collaborative work in the 70s with the co-authors of eight books. the latest, the betrayal of the american dream. watch live at noon eastern on janua

we hope to reach agreement on the supplemental and fisa tomorrow. if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until sec fair of state william burns said today that the officials at the highest levels at the state department were.. [inaudible conversations] >> the hearing will come to order. my apologies to everybody for the switch in time, but as everybody knows with the loss of our colleague, nart senator inouye, the course of events uncertain yesterday, and it was decided that his remains will be brought here at ten o'clock, and everybody felt it be inappropriate for us simply be having a hearing preventing senators to attend, and all of us would like to attend. we'll try to pack this in the period of time we have between now and quarter of so senators can get there to take part in that ceremony. in addition, obviously, with the switch in time, some colleagues and others have not yet gotten here. i do want

it's a fisa amendment act, known as the faa.ersations between americans and people around the world without a warrant, only a certification what they're doing is legal. so no individualized warrant going to a court saying we want to eavesdrop on x. we want to look at e-mail. we want to hear cell phone calls. we want to hear land line calls. and what the federal government has the capacity to do and it all goes to a place in virginia, is look at entire in boxes of people that they suspect have connections to al-qaeda, other terrorist organizations, and so the aclu says, hands off. no more, stop doing this. there is a case in the united states supreme court and now the senate is looking to whether extends this house said five years. it's necessary. >> steve: there are a couple of senators, and this is bipartisan, opposition to widen. oregon and utah. what is their opposition? >> they're saying, who is part of the so-called dragnet? who has been dragged? in what are the identities of these people? how many americans are ensnared in

this is aven extension of the fisa law, which was amended by the patriot act, which basically says the outside the united states when they're talking to somebody in the united states. so if you call a cousin in europe or a business colleague in asia, the federal government can listen to what you say. if you e-mail them, they can read the e-mail. they don't need record or suspicion. your privacy shot. >> gretchen: what about if all i say is (speaking a foreign language). >> i don't know what that means u about the government will because they have the best translators in this country. it will be like east germany because people will be afraid to be themselves that's why we have the fourth amendment. >> steve: i wonder how many terrorists activities or plots have been stopped by this program. >> you know, a good question. we probably will never know. >> steve: because it's a question -- which is the greater risk? that we listen in on some international phone calls or another 9-11? >> that's a very good question ask judgment that the congress is not permit to do make because the fourth am

we need to do fisa, intelligence gathering apparatus. we need to do the defense authorization bill. we have to do something on spend, i hope, if the republicans move to we can get that done. we're going to work on this community banking thing now. so that covers most everything. i may have missed a thing or two but that's the general idea. christmas is two weeks from today. >> [inaudible] >> they said the support for the legislation -- >> you know this is -- everyone listen to this. we suddenly have republican votes on internet poker. two weeks before christmas. without being vulgar, what the hell would i put it on? that wasn't too vulgar. >> for people watching the process, cowl you describe what's possible with the fiscal cliff in the time we have left? >> we can do things very quickly. but this is not something we can do easily. it's -- at least as far as bill drafting goes. but until we hear something from the republicans, there's nothing to draft. so we can get things done quickly. i think it's going to be extremely difficult to get it done before christmas. but it could be don

with the fisa bill, something we have to do before we leave here -- i've said that several times thisweek -- i've had a number of conversations with interested members, and i'm hopeful we can get an agreement to complete action on this matter tomorrow. the d.o.d. authorization conference report, they've completed that work. it's been tedious and very hard. senator mccain, senator levin have worked very, very hard. we're hopeful we can lock an agreement to vote on that tomorrow. we also have to confirm three district court judges. we hope to be able to do that tomorrow. we have a lot of work to do. the house as we speak is, i will say this in a kind way, they're trying to come up with something. they have worked all day to come up with something, and we're waiting for their something. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: t

we need to do fisa, our intelligence gathering apparatus. we need to do the defense authorization bill. we have to do something on spending. i hope the republicans move, so we can get that done. we are going to work on this community banking thing. that covers most everything. i may have missed a thing or two, but that is generally. christmas is two weeks from today. >> [indiscernible] >> i am sorry. what is that? >> the republican support on the -- >> they said what? >> [indiscernible] >> you know, this is -- everyone, listen to this. we suddenly have republican votes on internet poker. two weeks before christmas, without being vulgar, what the hell? that was too vulgar. >> for people watching this common [indiscernible] in the time we have left, in terms of getting something done? >> we can do things very quickly. but this is not something we can do easily, at least as far as bill-drafting goes. until we hear something from the republicans, there is nothing to draft. we can get things done quickly. i think it is going to be extremely diffi

can complete the extremely important defense authorization bill today, and we're moving forward on fisa today. we're going to move forward one way or the other. i hope that we can get an agreement to move forward on it. if not, we will go forward without an agreement. we will need everyone to pay attention, as they always do, but maybe more so today, because a lot of things are going on here, and people need to understand that we have things to do. we want to be able to get home for a few days for christmas, even though we will be back on the thursday after christmas. mr. president, i'm going to take a few minutes today to honor my colleague, the senior senator from new mexico, jeff bingaman, as he retires from a long career of service to our country. for 30 years, senator bingaman has been a dedicated representative of the people of new mexico, but for those -- for 26 of those years, he was a junior senior from new mexico. the only person that i know of that was a junior senator longer than senator bingaman was fritz hollings. he was a junior senator for many, many decades to strom thu

he said the economy is too fisa to raise taxes on anybody. mr. president -- he said, the town -- the economy is too fragile to raise taxes on anybody. mr. president, the economy is still fragile. host: back to the phones. senator in tennessee on our line for independents. you are on the line. caller: i am independent. regarding the fiscal cliff, i disagree with some of the ideas that you actually concur with. a lot of right-wing people are considered christian conservatives. we cannot apply those two situations such as the fiscal cliff. this is mark 12:41. many who were rich cast in much for the treasury. in this economy and give it to people who aren't producing that's not a good formula for making the economy grow. let's get back to a system that taxes people fairly but gives america an advantage in the rest of the world. let's face it, the united states isn't just competing with each other we're competing with other countries trying to catch up with us. and one of the points in my book is we've got to get serious in this nation about being a c

foreign intelligence surveillance act or fisa and the patriot act are good examples of the tools that we need to know what our enemies are planning, who they are before they strike. these tools cannot be allowed to expire. the patriot act reflects a recognition that investigators charged with preventing acts of terrorism should have at least the same investigative tools as federal agents charged with targeting mobsters or health care fraud. the fourth and last national security challenge i'll mention is the rise of transnational law which poses a serious threat to american sovereignty. our government was founded on the principle that laws should be made through the democratic process, so that the people can hold their legislators accountable. the american people elect their own representatives and, therefore, control their own affairs. that's the theory. americans want the benefits of global cooperation based on widespread acceptance of useful international rules of the road, of course, but such rules, like our domestic laws, should be adopted through democratic processes that assure

the first would extend provisions of the fisa act. the other is a pack abbling for areas affected by hurricane sandy. you can follow live coverage of the senate on c-span2. and house members are on stand by as negotiations continue over the so-called fiscal cliff. >> now a conversation on hollywood's portrayal of politics and policy making in movies and tv shows. among those we'll hear from the crete or the of the show "homeland." this is an hour 20 minutes. >> good evening again. welcome back to the forum. i'm not the one you'll be applauding for. you know we have public events, public forums in our headquarters campus about once a month. and we've had former presidents and foreign ministers and ambassadors and please chiefs. we have never, to my knowledge, had anybody who has ever created, let alone starred in movies or tv series until tonight. and we have michael lynn on the to thank for that. mike sl co-chair politics aside 2012 just like 2010 and he of course is a ran strust tee so we're delighted to have him. he'll moderate toni

before we leave for chris marks we'll have to finish our work on sandy and fisa. they're both extremely important, but they have to be completed. so everyone should understand we have that to do, and it appears at this stage we'll see if anything changes -- but it appears that we're going to be coming back the day after christmas to complete work on the fiscal cliff and a few other leftover items. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i want to start by extending my deepest sympathies to the families of the victims of friday's massacre and to the whole community and to thank the first responders and all those who are helping in the aftermath of this darkest of tragedies. three days after the horrors of newtown, we're all still reeling from what happened. anytime there is a shooting like this, we're crushed with sorrow. but there's no he is scraping the fact that the mas the massae stands out for it its awfulness. the murder of so many little children and the adults who tried to save them doesn't just break our hearts, it shatters them. the last few days have been searing

they also approved a five-year extension of fisa, the foreign intelligence surveillance act, which allowshe government to conduct surveillance on foreign targets without individual court orders. that bill heads to the president was expected to sign it. as for the congressional leaders, they met with the white house. afterwards, the president told reporters that senate majority praetor -- senate majority leader harry reid and minority leader mitch mcconnell are continuing to try to come to a agreement. if they did not, the president has asked senator reid to introduce a basic package for an up or down vote. they will continue legislative business sunday. the house live at 2:00 p.m. sunday, with bullets as early as 6:00 p.m. eastern. the senate is in at 1:00 p.m. eastern, live on c-span2. >> also today on capitol hill, senator carl levin and john mccain of for their ideas for bypassing filibuster's to take up legislation, a counterproposal to another plan that would have to change the senate rules to a simple majority vote. it spoke to reporters for about half an hour. -- they spoke to repo

senators are considering an extension of the foreign intelligence surveillance act or fisa. in about 45 minutes, we're expecting a vote on an amendment to the fisa bill, this a vote on final passage. the house passed it in september, and if the senate passes without amendment, it heads to the president for his signature. the senate is expected to move to a $60 billion spending bill for hurricane sandy victims. we're expecting up to 21 amendments on that bill. now live coverage of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. almighty god, before whom the generations rise and pass away, watch over america and use our senators to keep it strong and good. imprint upon their hearts such reverence for you that they will be ashamed and afraid to offend you. remind them that their thoughts, words, and deeds are under divine scrutiny. bless also the many others who work faithfully on capitol hill and whose labors bring dignity and efficiency to the legis

agreement for amendments in order to complete action on the completely as well as an agreement on fisa 25 million middle-class taxpayers while handing out $50,000 bonuses to millionaires and billionaires was dead on arrival. we said that yesterday. we knew the so-called plan b was no plan at all. it couldn't pass the senate. turns out, it couldn't pass the house either. it's too bad speaker boehner wasted a week in this futile political stunt, and that's all we can all it, mr. president, but at least now house republicans have gotten the message loud and clear that comprehensive -- a comprehensive solution to the looming fiscal cliff will need to be a bipartisan solution. no comprehensive agreement can pass either chamber without both democrats and republican votes. which means any solution will have to ask the most fortunate among us to pay a little more to reduce the deficit and ensure hardship doesn't -- hardship doesn't take the nation to the brink of default. nothing that has passed the house of representatives fits that test, nothing. a few days ago, president obama and speaker b