mr. chairman , i rise in support of the berman-delahunt amendment . 
all it does is require a report to congress on data mining by agencies . 
let me say why this is important . 
at the end of the last decade , before 9/11 and before the patriot act was even considered , the fbi had set up a data-mining operation that went far beyond criminal and intelligence investigations and compromised the privacy of literally millions of americans , and this was done without the knowledge of the congress of the united states , and it was only as a result of the fact that it did not work and they wasted all of this money that the congress found out about it . 
so i think that before any of the agencies go down this route , there ought to be at least a tip-off to the members of congress . 
i grant the members that the amendment probably is not properly drafted and we can fix this in conference , and i appreciate the commitment of the chairman of the permanent select committee on intelligence to do that , but i do not think we should turn it down and send a message to the agencies that they can data mine all they want and we are not going to do anything about it . 
