Ron Paul NDAA Debate: Candidate Introduces Legislation to Defang Controversial Bill [VIDEO]

Ron Paul, the Texas Republican Congressman and 2012 Republican presidential primary candidate has inserted himself into the center of the debate over the controversial NDAA bill.

Ron Paul took a few moments away from the rigors of his presidential campaign Wednesday to speak out against certain provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The NDAA, which President Barack Obama signed into law on Jan. 1, has caused major controversy as opponents have vocally expressed concerns that it allows the federal government to imprison American citizens indefinitely without charging them.

Paul, a libertarian Republican from Texas and one of the Final Four of GOP presidential candidates, has been a strong opponent of the bill in the past, and on Wednesday he came out with his new legislation to reign it in.

The law would remove the NDAA's Section 1021, which is the part that allows certain actors in the federal government to indefinitely detain people accused of supporting terrorism.

Obama used a signing statement to promise not to detain Americans under the law, but Paul is not assuaged by that step, and he took to the House floor Wednesday to speak out against it and introduce his legislation to fix it:

I rise today to introduce a very simple piece of legislation to repeal the infamous section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act quietly signed into law by the president on New Year 's Day, Ron Paul said.

What a way to usher in the new year. Section 1021 essentially codifies into law the very dubious claim of presidential authority under the 2001 authority for the use of military force to indefinitely detain American citizens without access to legal representation or due process of law.

His remarks then delved into a harsh criticism of his fellow members of Congress, saying they have been too cowardly in the face of what he considers an unconstitutional bill:

Too many of my colleagues are too willing to undermine our constitution to support such outrageous legislation, Ron Paul said. One senator even said, about American citizens being picked up under this section of the NDAA: 'When they say I want my lawyer, you tell them: Shut up, you don't get a lawyer.'

Paul has been speaking out against the bill for weeks, and in December he said the law would speed the nation's descent into totalitarianism, according to The Hill.