Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Thank you, Ranking Member Ruppersberger.

Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this very disturbing bill.

One thing that is important to keeping our country number one has been the personal freedoms that we have all enjoyed since this country's beginning. Those freedoms lie in the Bill of Rights. And the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution within that Bill of Rights provides for a right of privacy. Now this right of privacy can be impacted by technology and various advances in science that make eavesdropping, surveillance, and investigation easier and also more secretive by law enforcement, by personal individuals, and by corporations, by any component that may look to misuse information for their personal benefit. So I rise in opposition to this disturbing bill.

CISPA would grant the private sector blanket permission to harvest Americans' data for extremely broad ``cybersecurity purposes,'' notwithstanding any other provision of law. It would grant the private sector blanket permission to then share that data with the Federal Government, notwithstanding any other privacy laws or agreements with users.

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Then, as if that weren't disturbing enough, this bill would grant the government broad authority to share that information between intelligence and law enforcement agencies and use it for virtually any purpose defined as important to cybersecurity or national security.

I know it's 2012, but it sure feels like ``1984'' in this House today. If you value liberty, privacy, and the Constitution, then you will vote ``no'' on CISPA.

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