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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, in the wake of the violent and senseless murders of multiple lawmakers and political advocates, I rise to seek passage of legislation that will provide a real measure of protection to all Americans for their privacy and security.

Before I do, I also want to point out that I am just back from the so-called ``war-ravaged hellhole'' of Portland, OR--my hometown--and somehow I made it out unscathed. I will have more to say, but I want to make clear that my hometown of Portland is safe; it is vibrant; and Portlanders do not want Federal troops and do not need Federal troops.

Now, with respect to privacy, as it stands today, data brokers have amassed vast amounts of Americans' personal information, which they are willing to sell to anyone with a credit card. Would-be murderers can often find the home addresses and other personal information about their targets within a few search results on Google. Indeed, the assassin who murdered Minnesota State representative Melissa Hortman and shot State senator John Hoffman repeatedly used ``people search'' websites run by data brokers to learn the home addresses of the victims.

I also recognize that Members of Congress receive untold numbers of violent and harassing threats as a result of our jobs, and I want to credit the bipartisan effort in the Senate Commerce Committee to provide privacy protections for Members of Congress. I do not intend to stand in the way of their legislation.

The bill I offer today takes the privacy protections against data brokers in the Commerce Committee's bill and extends them to all Americans. Protecting everyone is the most effective way to protect U.S. military and intelligence personnel, including undercover officers. There have been numerous press reports over the past few years revealing how data brokers are selling sensitive location data collected from U.S. personnel who are working at military bases and other sensitive facilities and that they are willing to actually sell this data to foreign buyers. Members of Congress should not receive special treatment. Our constituents deserve protection from violence, stalking, and other criminal threats.

2850; that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, the Senator from Texas has offered to do a hearing on my proposal, and I do appreciate that.

I simply believe it is unfortunate when the Senate will pass privacy protections for ourselves but not for all Americans and that only shady data brokers, would-be murderers and stalkers, as well as foreign adversaries buying data on U.S. Government officials, are actually going to benefit from blocking this bill.

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