On January 21, 2009, I stood on the steps of the United States Capitol and heard Barack Obama – who, minutes before, had been sworn in as the president of the United States – deliver a striking call for the protection of civil liberties.  As Americans, he said, we must “reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”

How troubling, then, to hear that same president claim last Friday that America must strike “the balance between security and liberty” – embracing the same false choice that he himself once denounced.  The truth is that requiring surveillance agencies to follow the Fourth Amendment makes us safer, not less safe.

The president’s remark came in a speech announcing reforms intended to calm public fury over the National Security Agency’s abuses of its surveillance authority.  Yet his reform proposals are not nearly as exhaustive, or as effective, as he implied.

The president’s proposals continue to allow surveillance of Americans without requiring a Fourth Amendment determination of probable cause. They continue to allow the government to build backdoors into computer software and hardware. They fail to strengthen protections for whistleblowers who uncover abusive spying. You can read more about my concerns about these proposals in a recent op-ed I wrote for MSNBC.

The best way forward is to repeal the laws that made the NSA’s abuses possible in the first place by passing the Surveillance State Repeal Act, which I’ve introduced into Congress.

104,000

A few weeks ago, in an act of stunning callousness, House Republicans allowed the expiration of an emergency extension of unemployment insurance.  They claimed to be motivated by a desire to help the unemployed:  that, by eliminating extended unemployment benefits, Congress would nudge out-of-work people to find good-paying jobs.  Yet this claim is nonsensical.  At a time when three people are out of work for every job opening, it would be literally impossible for everyone who is unemployed to find a job, and there are more people than in previous recessions who are unemployed for long periods of six, 12, or even 18 months.

At next week’s State of the Union address I’ll be joined by one New Jerseyan who has lost both his job and his unemployment insurance through no fault of his own.  He is far from alone: about 104,000 New Jerseyans have been kicked off unemployment insurance so far.  Many have no other source of income, no savings, and are growing increasingly desperate.  How could a decent nation abandon so many of our friends and neighbors?

When Women Succeed, America Succeeds

Since 2009, every worker in New Jersey has been guaranteed access to paid family leave.  This past November, New Jersey voters overwhelmingly supported a statewide increase to the minimum wage.  And in recent months, cities across the state have acted to guarantee workers paid sick days.

These policies illustrate a path toward greater economic stability for all workers, and especially for women and families.  On Thursday I’ll be holding a roundtable forum with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, community leaders, and woman business owners to talk about what the nation can learn from New Jersey’s efforts – and what further steps New Jersey should take to strengthen and grow the middle class.  We welcome you to join the conversation.

Thursday, January 30, 2014
11:00 a.m.
New Jersey Statehouse, Committee Room TBD
125 West State Street
Trenton, New Jersey

Please RSVP to jackie.cornell@mail.house.gov to receive an update on final room information.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress