{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-icymidr-rand-paul-senate-floor-deep-state-needs-more-oversight/", "ICYMI:Dr. Rand Paul on the Senate Floor: \u2018The Deep State Needs More Oversight\u2019", "2018-12-19", "2018", "2018-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nDecember 19, 2018\n\nContact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Shortly before the U.S. Senate held a procedural vote on an intelligence community nomination this morning, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke on the need for greater oversight of the Deep State.\n\nDr. Paul specifically cited the secretive drone strike program\u2019s \u201cpower to kill anyone, anywhere, anytime\u201d as \u201can ominous power\u201d and called out the lack of checks and balances. He noted that only a select few in Congress are briefed on intelligence matters, even then often being told only after the fact.\n\n\u201cWhat happens is you get imperfect and not very good oversight. The checks and balances are not working because the only people being told about what the intelligence community is doing are the people who are rubber stamps for what they are doing,\u201d Dr. Paul stated on the floor.\n\nDr. Paul also discussed how he has not received answers, including from the nominee, to a simple question: does the United States kill people around the world based on metadata? He noted that his objection to cloture was not based on the individual being nominated but on the need for an answer to this question and greater accountability.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been holding this nominee and will vote against this nominee because I believe that the Deep State needs more oversight. I believe that we shouldn\u2019t kill anyone, anywhere, anytime around the world without some checks and balances. I also believe that our drone program, our targeted killing, actually makes the country less safe and makes us more at risk for terrorism,\u201d Dr. Paul said in his speech.\n\nYou can watch Dr. Paul\u2019s entire speech HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:11:43Z"]], "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.paul.senate.gov/news-icymidr-rand-paul-senate-floor-deep-state-needs-more-oversight/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7089469581842422, "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"}