{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/statements-and-speeches/heinrich-statement-on-us-district-court-ruling-on-bulk-collection-of-phone-records", "Heinrich Statement on U.S. District Court Ruling on Bulk Collection of Phone Records", "2013-12-17", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "NM", "Martin Heinrich", "H001046", "www.heinrich.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Heinrich Statement on U.S. District Court Ruling on Bulk Collection of Phone Records\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTuesday, December 17, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M) issued the following statement regarding a decision by Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granting the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction to block the gathering of their telephone data because a program that collects Americans telephone records in bulk is likely unconstitutional:\r\n\"I agree with Judge Leon\u2019s view that the framers of our Constitution would be alarmed by the collection and long-term retention of personal information about millions of innocent Americans for a program that has added little of value to the fight against terrorism.\u00a0 We have allowed the intelligence community to stray from what the framers had in mind when they wrote the Fourth Amendment and were dealing directly with government overreach.\u00a0 It\u2019s increasingly clear that\u00a0some of\u00a0the NSA\u2019s current efforts are unnecessary, and possibly unlawful.\u00a0 I will continue fighting to end this bulk metadata collection program, and am confident that we can find a way to balance our civil liberties while also protecting our nation from terrorist threats.\"\r\nA member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Senator Heinrich has been working to prohibit the National Security Agency (N.S.A.) from collecting Americans' information in bulk.\u00a0 During a closed meeting of the SSCI on Oct. 31, 2013 to consider legislation concerning the intelligence community\u2019s information gathering powers, he offered an amendment that would have prohibited the NSA from collecting Americans\u2019 cellphone location information in bulk, while still permitting the government to acquire this information with an individualized warrant.\u00a0 The amendment failed by a 7-8 vote.\u00a0 Read the\u00a0published committee report.\r\nSenator Heinrich is also an original cosponsor of the\u00a0USA FREEDOM Act, which would end the bulk collection of Americans' phone and other communications records under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and ensure that other authorities cannot be used to justify similar widespread collection.\u00a0 The bill also provides more safeguards against searches of Americans' communications collected in the course of targeting foreigners as authorized by the FISA Amendments Act.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/statements-and-speeches/heinrich-statement-on-us-district-court-ruling-on-bulk-collection-of-phone-records"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8700359612703323, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}