The work of a generation is beginning here, with your hearings, and you have the full measure of my gratitude and support.

How do we preserve our civil rights, our traditions as a liberal democracy, in a time when government power is expanding and is more and more difficult to check?

Since the revelations, we have seen a massive sea change in the technological basis and makeup of the Internet.

The power of the presidency is important, but it is not determinative.

I have a somewhat sneaky way of effecting political change.

Before 2013, if you said the NSA was making records of everybody's phone calls and the [Government Communications Headquarters] was monitoring lawyers and journalists, people raised eyebrows and called you a conspiracy theorist. Those days are over.

If we don't do anything, if we go along with the status quo, we are going to have a mass surveillance world.