Rep. Michael Capuano joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday to offer his thoughts on the end of the Patriot Act, and TSA screeners failing to identify potential explosives and weapons in airport luggage.
What follows is a partial transcript. Questions are paraphrased, and answers are edited where noted [...].
Now that Congress has voted to curtail NSA surveillance, does that vindicate Edward Snowden?
I agreed with him from day one. I agreed with him even before he did that. [...] Government is made up of people, and there are good people, [but] you get individual actors who are bad.
So, in this case the end may have justified the means when Snowden decided to release classified information.
I think, again, it's a difficult question to have. I mean, he clearly broke the law, we all understand that. But Martin Luther King broke the law. [...] If all he did is what I know about, [...] I think that that's worthy of support and admiration.
Usaama Rahim was shot dead yesterday in Roslindale by law enforcement. He was thought to be part of a plot to kill law enforcement officers. If bulk data could help point authorities to individuals like this, isn't it worth having some sort of data collection program?
There have been, to my knowledge, [...] no specific cases of what the bulk data has provided for security purposes. There are obviously some people out there with bad intentions. We all know that. There always has been, there always will be. [...] I would be surprised and interested to learn that this case — or any case — was actually the result of bulk data collection.
A new report found that the TSA screeners failed to identify 67 out of 70 weapons or explosives during a training test. How does this happen?
The TSA people are good people, but let's be honest: they may not get the best training, the best equipment. There's a lot of pressure. [...] Anybody who's flown can see this. [...] The airlines and everyone are pushing more and more and more people into that [pre-check security] line, and again the whole idea is to get through quickly. [...] We want the patina of security and that's kind of the way we end up. To me, that's unacceptable. If you're going to have security, you should have security.
You filed a bill looking to prevent surveillance by private companies on consumers. For instance: a set-top box being able to record your in-home movements. Are you still advocating for increased privacy?
Pretty much every car for the last ten or 15 years — it's almost every car now — has a device in it that is tied to your airbags. [...] If there's no limitations on it, it could be used by anybody. You cannot stop your local automobile dealer [...] from accessing that information. [...] There's no law or regulation that says they can't record everything. You cannot turn it off, you cannot deactivate it. You may have a notice of it, but it's on page 437 of your owner's manual.
Speaking of cars, you've been advocating for better funding for the Highway Trust Fund. Are your fellow representatives as concerned about infrastructure as you are?
It's a major debate down here. Again, everybody wants good infrastructure, everybody talks a good game.
But they don't want to pay for it.
If we really want a good infrastructure across this country, we have to find new ways to find new money. [...] And by the way , the federal government doesn't make a nickel out of that! [...] The government simply hires a contractor to fix [Interstate] 93. [...] None of them are government workers, and people — I don't know what they're thinking. Maybe they're thinking this can be done for free.
