{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-on-democrats-holding-fisa-hostage/", "Thune on Democrats Holding FISA Hostage", "2026-06-09", "2026", "2026-06", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke at a press conference with Senate Republican leadership:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cWe have a saying around here that, if you don\u2019t get national security right, the rest is just conversation.\n\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s certainly true with respect to some of the issues that we have in front of us right now.\n\n\u201cThe FISA legislation, which is pending here in the United States Senate, is critical to keeping this country safe and secure for Americans.\n\n\u201cAnd just to put a fine point on that, if you look at how effective FISA has been, it has stopped numerous terrorist attacks.\n\n\u201cIt has been used in 90 percent of the CIA\u2019s synthetic drug disruptions.\n\n\u201cSo, in other words, these drug busts that you keep reading about, a lot of that originates with information derived from the 702 process.\n\n\u201cSo, it\u2019s very, very concerning when you have the Democrats here in the United States Senate essentially saying that, \u2018We are not interested in reauthorizing this program,\u2019 which will go dark at midnight on Friday if we don\u2019t take action.\n\n\u201cAnd it would be alarming under any circumstance, but it\u2019s especially alarming now, given the fact that we are heading into a time where the U.S. starts hosting the World Cup, for example.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got all kinds of 250th anniversary celebrations coming up here in the not-too-distant future.\n\n\u201cAnd you\u2019ve got a program that has a proven record when it comes to keeping this country safe that is at risk because Democrats here in the United States Senate have decided to block vote against it.\n\n\u201cThat is a very dangerous proposition.\n\n\u201cIt puts Americans at risk.\n\n\u201cAnd it started with the air traffic control, and then it was border security, the Department of Homeland Security \u2013 you go right down the list of all these agencies the Democrats have decided not to fund.\n\n\u201cThey truly are the party of open borders, defund the police, sanctuary cities, and unfortunately right now, defunding the 702 program, which is essential to America\u2019s national security interests.\n\n\u201cSo, Republicans are going to do everything we can to keep this program on track, but obviously \u2026 we\u2019re going to need some help from Democrats in order to get it across the finish line.\n\n\u201cAnd I certainly hope that they put the nation\u2019s national security interests ahead of their Trump Derangement Syndrome, which seems to be what\u2019s driving the decisions that they\u2019re making here on a daily basis.\u201d", 1, "2026-06-18T06:41:00Z", "2026-06-18T06:43:25Z"]], "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.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-on-democrats-holding-fisa-hostage/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9336129296571016, "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"}