Murphy Statement on Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act
Washington, D.C. — Today, Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. issued the following statement after voting against H.R. 4639, the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, legislation detrimental to fundamental intelligence community activities critical to national security and community safety. The bill passed 219-199-1. "Protecting our safety and security, while balancing our constitutional protection to privacy is a delicate task," said Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. "Instead of rectifying past abuses, this legislation destroys credible surveillance efforts and severely hinders our ability to intercept threats to our country and communities before they occur. For example, this bill would prohibit the acquisition and use of commercially available information that China, Russia, Iran, foreign terrorist organizations, and cartels can readily access. Not only would this greatly disadvantage our intelligence community's efforts to address foreign threats, but it would also immensely damage the ability of local law enforcement to solve crimes, rescue victims, and prevent tragedies. I strongly support curtailing the abuses this bill attempts to confront, but it is far too broad in scope for what is a very narrow issue." Background All commercially available information could still be purchased by the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, foreign terrorist organizations, cartel leaders, and indeed by any willing buyer—everyone other than the U.S. government. The intelligence community’s acquisition of foreign intelligence overseas is governed by detailed regulations and policies that the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence jointly approve. These include procedures specifically designed to minimize and purge U.S. person data that is incidentally collected through the collection of foreign intelligence. |