Rubio Campaign Press Release - You Won't Believe What's Getting in the Way of the San Bernardino Terror Investigation

The Associated Press dropped a bombshell report today: Because of new restrictions on intelligence agencies passed into law earlier this year, authorities investigating the San Bernardino terror attack earlier this week can't get the suspects' phone call records from the NSA.

The U.S. government's ability to review and analyze five years' worth of telephone records for the married couple blamed in the deadly shootings in California lapsed just four days earlier when the National Security Agency's controversial mass surveillance program was formally shut down.

Under a court order, those historical calling records at the NSA are now off-limits to agents running the FBI terrorism investigation even with a warrant.

Instead, under the new USA Freedom Act, authorities were able to obtain roughly two years' worth of calling records directly from the phone companies of the married couple blamed in the attack.

The USA Freedom Act — the law that's restricting intelligence agencies going forward — was passed with the support of some Republicans, who joined with President Obama and Democrats to weaken our counterterror capabilities.

Here's what Marco had to say today about the report:

Because too many in Washington have failed to grasp the nature of this enemy, we have less access to intelligence information now than we did just days ago. In the wake of Wednesday's attack on innocent Americans doing nothing more than going about their daily lives, we must act swiftly to reverse the limitations imposed on these critical intelligence programs. Radical jihadists are trying to kill as many Americans as they can. Our law enforcement and intelligence professionals need access to this information. Failing to give them the tools they need to keep Americans safe is dangerous and irresponsible.

Marco warned about the risks of weakening our intelligence agencies before the new rules went into effect this week. Here's what he had to say about it several weeks ago:

And here he was on Fox News earlier this week:

The lesson is clear:

We can't afford to be weakening our capabilities to fight terror when the threat is growing so rapidly, and hitting us here at home.