Fourth Amendment is Not for Sale Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. RUTHERFORD. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Chair, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 4639, the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act, and all of the attending amendments, as well.
Mr. Chair, I also stand with, I think, every major law enforcement agency association in the country. This bill will only make our communities less safe by preventing local law enforcement and State law enforcement from being able to access information that has been legally collected and is publicly open-source information.
Every day, law enforcement officers use open-source, legally collected, and commercially available data. We use that to connect the dots to actually develop and find the leads that solve crimes like child abduction, drug trafficking, terrorism, and all sorts of different heinous crimes.
The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act will require law enforcement to get a warrant before they can access otherwise publicly open data.
Google and Facebook can access it. The Chinese can access it. The cartels and criminals can access it. Private actors can access it, but not the police. Only law enforcement will be blocked.
I can tell you, as a former sheriff, police officers work on time- sensitive cases every day where accessing this information quickly is a matter of life and death. I am a 40-year law enforcement officer, and I can think of dozens of cases where minutes mattered and my officers saved lives by accessing this data.
Some of the supporters of this bill say that all of those other folks who I just listed that still have access can't put you in jail. Let's be truthful here. The police can't put you in jail either without probable cause of a crime.
The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act will make communities far less safe by making officers' jobs harder. In fact, it helps out only the criminals.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this dangerous, antipolice bill.
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