Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.

[Pages H4726-H4727] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] TRUMP'S MOBILE SECURITY The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from California (Mr. Ted Lieu) is recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the minority leader. Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I am here with Congressman Ruben Gallego. I would like to talk about national security and how the President of the United States may be inadvertently giving away classified information. The President, through public reporting, shows that he is unwilling to swap out his cell phones. There is a big problem with this. Last term, I was involved with this flaw called the SS7 flaw. It is something that allows foreign powers and criminal syndicates affiliated with foreign powers to listen in on your cell phone just knowing your cell phone number, and there is no real good way to stop it. Our concern is that if the President finds it too inconvenient to deal with this issue of his cell phones, then his conversations could be listened in on by other foreign nations or by criminal syndicates. We also find this somewhat ironic and hypocritical when the Republican- [[Page H4727]] controlled Congress, last term, went to great lengths to talk about the potential damage of having a private email server for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This is a very similar concept. These are cell phones from which foreign powers can get the actual conversations of the President of the United States. We just want the White House, the Secret Service, and other agencies to talk to the President and say: Look, you just have to deal with operational security. You are their most highly-valued target in terms of intelligence information that foreign powers want; and, please, for our national security, swap out your cell phones. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gallego). Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, I came down to the floor today to give a gentle reminder and a wake-up call to Chairman Gowdy and to Speaker Ryan. I know they have a lot going on. The Speaker is flying out to do a fundraiser today. But I want to make sure he actually understood that what we know, also from multiple media outlets, is that this President is using a phone that is potentially compromising national security. Rather than use the best, most secure communication technology in the world, President Trump just reaches into his pocket and pulls out his regular off-the-shelf phone when he wants to discuss matters of state. Now, he can switch to another phone, a government-provided phone, one that is secure, and he can still even tweet from that phone, but, for some reason, he is still stuck on this phone that is a national security risk. Why would the leader of the free world, and our Commander in Chief, expose sensitive communication to foreign intelligence agencies? Why would he act in such a reckless, negligent manner? Well, according to news reports, the simple answer is that Donald Trump uses his personal cell phone because he just feels like it; it is more convenient for him. Forget the rules and forget the warnings from the military. He just does what he wants and ignores the consequences. I want to highlight this story for Chairman Gowdy and Speaker Ryan because I know they care deeply about data security at the highest level of our government. After all, when Secretary Clinton was found to have used her personal email server, they launched multiple, month-long investigations. They spent millions of tax dollars conducting five emergency hearings, including four, coincidentally, right before the election, and ended up issuing more than 70 subpoenas. Their efforts helped generate huge amounts of media coverage. In one 6-day period, The New York Times ran as many cover stories about Hillary Clinton's emails as they did about all of the policy issues combined in the 69 days leading up to the election. But now that President Trump's widely irresponsible use of his personal cell phone has been exposed, now that we know he could be exposing America's secrets to our gravest enemies, surely my Republican friends are going to be just as worried about data security as they were in the past and conduct some oversight. Surely, they will. They surely will demand and request all the documents, hold hearings, and question witnesses. Surely. They will want to get to the bottom of this scandal as soon as possible. Prior to the election, Chairman Gowdy explained to the reporters: This investigation is not about politics. This is not even about one individual. If it wasn't about politics, and if it wasn't just about stopping Hillary Clinton, the Speaker of the House and the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee should certainly feel interested in investigating the President's cell phone use. And yet, coincidentally, they have been completely silent. Not one press statement, not one letter, not one word of warning to the White House. It is almost as if they have no interest in conducting real oversight of this President. It is almost as if they are more interested in helping this President than holding him accountable. It is almost as if this Republican Party has completely lost its moral compass under this President. Mr. Speaker, perhaps my good friend, Congressman Ted Lieu, could shed some light on more of these troubling issues for me. Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Gallego for his comments. Both of us served Active Duty in the United States military-- Congressman Gallego served in combat--and we both know that one of the most important things to our military is operational security and protecting our communications and making sure that they are secure. {time} 1115 Donald Trump is the Commander in Chief of our military. If there is anyone that needs to have their communications secure, it has got to be our Commander in Chief. Unfortunately, the President and the Republicans here that enable him are allowing him to have unsecured communications. That is really going to be harmful to our national security. This is not some sort of theoretical flaw that exists. The Federal Communications Commission has issued a report saying that this flaw where foreign powers can listen in on our cell phone communications is real, it exists. People have used it not just to listen in, but also to do nefarious things. A bank earlier this year lost millions of dollars because of this flaw. So, again, we urge the President and the Republicans here to change the President's behavior, to do oversight on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I am going to conclude this segment. I thank you for listening. I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President. ____________________