Washington, DC…Congressman McClintock delivered the following remarks on the House floor: I don’t discount the mounting dangers we face from enemies abroad. But we also cannot discount the dangers we face at home from the very powers this bill would continue. The FBI abused these powers 278,000 times in a single year and turned them against American citizens.

There are many excellent reforms in this bill that I applaud. But they largely depend on these agencies policing themselves, and experience warns us that’s just not enough. Without a warrant requirement, I fear these powers will once again be turned against our fundamental liberties and — these days — that scares me as much as a terrorist attack.

Benjamin Franklin’s warning echoes from his age to ours: “those who can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Let that not be history’s judgement of us.