sensenbrenner was the cosponsor. we had a lot of good cosponsors of the republican side and on the democrat side. rush holt really worked on the provision to keep the government from forcing companies to put actors in their products. so, that passed. that was a limitation amendment, which by all rights should have been in the omnibus that passed last night. but it got stripped the had closed doors and never showed up in the final bill, which is very unfortunate. i will have good news for you at some point in the speech i guess. so, that brings us, i guess, to where we are right now. what are we going to do in the next congress? we have all of these caucuses. the diabetes caucus, the tea party caucus, the ready mix caucus for concrete. there is a caucus for everything. your constituents are always calling me saying, why argue on this caucus? don't you care about my issue? i want to tell them, you're caucus never meets. i do not. i do what they tell me to. there is one that meets, the liberty caucus. it was started by

sensenbrenner said we're here to figure out why he did what he did. i don't think that's helpful at all. i mean, we could -- we would probably come up with a hundred different variations. i don't think that's material. it's whether it's constitutional or unconstitutional. i think we go back to this little book here, how our laws are made. i mean, you know, fifth grade. and i want to introduce this. >> without objection, it will be made a part of the record. >> and then we back that up with not only section 1 of article 1, but section 8, which actually says to establish uniform rules of naturalization and it didn't give it to the president. clearly and simply gave it to the congress. now, some of us must disagree with that, but it's the constitution. >> just a brief comment. justice jackson said that president's power is at its lowest when he's acting contrary to the express or implied will of congress. the implied will of congress if not the express is not to act in this area, at least not yet. his power should be at the lowest. justice jackson or jus

last october, 2013 senator leahy and congressman sensenbrenner came together to introduce the usa freedom act of 2013. that bill definitively ended war would have ended the bulk collection of america's records under section 2 and 15 of the u.s. patriot act as well as other authorities. it had a range of other reforms to various surveillance authorities as well. as congress and ascii -- congressman massie described the bill was taken up by the house. the bill that came out of the house was significantly watered down at the end of the day. many of the reforms were removed but most critically there were concerns raised that this bill has passed although was intended to and collection under section 215 may not have done the job. that caused privacy groups like some of the ones represent him as panel as well as technology companies like google to pull their support from that bill. when it came over to the senate it was the end of me. we took the bill. we looked at it and the goal for senator leahy was to try to bring those stakeholders back to the table but he also recognize that it was critic

last october, 2013, senator congressman sensenbrenner introduced the 2013.. freedom act of that bill definitively ended, collection nded the of americans' records under ection 215 of the u.s. patriot act and other authorities. it had a range of other reforms various surveillance authorities as well. as congressman matthew described the bill was taken up by the and the bill out of the house was significantly watered down. many reforms were removed. but most critically there were the house ised that bill as passed although it bulkly was intended to end collection may not have done the job. groups like rivacy some of the ones represented on his panel and technology companies to pull their support from the bill. when it came over to the senate we took the may bill and looked at it and the leahy was to or try to bring those important take.olders back to the but he roecognized it was to maintain the intelligence community to have a real shot of getting it done. president had announced at this point that he supported collection and we thought it was something we cou

sensenbrenner. i think that secretary johnson was correct when he says that there is a line.i think in this case the president not only crossed the line but that line is far, far, far in the distance. >> that's kind of like the line he drew on syria, right? >> i think that is an apt analogy. >> thank you. >> i don't know that the constitution requires a certain number of people beyond which he could not grant deferred action to. i don't think the constitution speaks to that -- >> okay. my time is limited. >> i'm going to quote very quickly from the opinion that's been quoted by members of this committee. presidential action violates the constitution this is the quote if he expressly adopts a generally policy in effect abdication of the statutory duty. that's what has happened here. the president changed the law. >> mr. rotunda, briefly. >> two things. >> please turn on your microphone. >> all right. heckler v cheney, it said the agency's decision not to prosecute or enforce is generally committed to an agency's absolute discretion. the olc does not quote the next sentence the

voting rights amendment act which was authored by chairman leahy, and republican congressman jim sensenbrenner the shelby county decision. hearing ase my last chairman before i turn over the gavel to senator cruz, the incoming chairman. clearly, there is much work to do. i look forward to working with senator cruz in the 114th congress as we continue to struggle to create a more perfect union. senator cruz? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think the witnesses here today. there is no more important role for the united states senate then to carefully guard and protect civil rights of every american. we take an oath to uphold the constitution. that is a promise every american rightly should hold us accountable to honor. the chairman and i agree on a number of matters concerning civil rights. theth cosponsored smarter sentencing act which would reduce mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders. and help restore the proper balance the federal deterrence and proportionality to these laws. we are cosponsors of the usa freedom act, which i believe strikes a better balance between the need to combat