mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time , and i rise in support of this amendment . 
mr. chairman , national security letters are sort of a strange beast . 
it is kind of difficult to figure out what they are . 
they are sort of like administrative subpoenas , but they are not actually administrative subpoenas . 
they are limited in their scope . 
nsls do not allow the fbi to read the contents of communications but rather the records of communication . 
that may seem like a legal nicety , but it is a major difference . 
the supreme court has recognized those kinds of differences . 
nonetheless , the recipients of these , while the justice department has told us that they allow them to talk to their lawyers , if you look at the statute as it exists now there seems to be a question about that . 
this amendments makes its explicit . 
also , currently under the law , there is no enforcement mechanism when they do issue a national security letter . 
this amendment allows such an enforcement mechanism by going to a court . 
so in a very real sense this amendment both protects those who would receive one of these letters , and if they object to it they can go to an attorney , they can fight it , and it also gives the government a means of attempting to try and secure compliance with it . 
so in both instances , i think what we have done is give a little more regularity to it . 
we have given it a little terra firma here , and for that reason i support it and would urge my colleagues to do the same . 
