Protect America Act Of 2007

Floor Speech

PROTECT AMERICA ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - August 04, 2007)

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Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, just briefly to the gentleman from Virginia's point, the very next section on that page says this does not include electronic surveillance.

The operative part of this bill is a short paragraph which essentially brings up the checks and balances that were originally in the 1978 FISA and brings it up to 2007 technology. That is what's going on here.

Now, there are some people who do not agree with the checks and balances that were in the 1978 FISA. Some people think it went too far one way, some people think it went too far another way.

This bill does not touch that. What it does is it just brings up those same checks and balances with the way we communicate today, and the way that technology has changed.

Mr. Speaker, I think it's important to emphasize what's going on here. Information is the critical element, which allows us to defend the country, which allows troops to operate in the field, which allows Homeland Security folks of all sorts to defend us against terrorism.

We are not collecting, today, the information we were able to collect a short while ago. Most of us would agree, not all of us, but most of us would agree it's information we should be collecting from foreign targets in foreign countries. The heart of the problem is a law that has not kept up with technology.

Now, there have been efforts for many months in this Chamber to try to update that law. Last September, the gentlelady from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) had a bill which passed this House, which was a comprehensive bill, more than 40 pages, that tried to fix this law.

Unfortunately, that did not get signed into law and the chairman of Intelligence Committee says that we are going to get back to that more comprehensive view. But while we are waiting for that, the danger persists, and the danger grows.

Now we have a very small bill, just a few pages, that tries to close the gap between the intelligence we need to keep us safe and the intelligence we are getting. It doesn't do everything, it doesn't do nearly as much as I would like to do, but it does close the gap at a critical time.

It's important, even with that limited bill, it's important to get the details right. That's why, for all of the talk we have heard about what the Director of National Intelligence has or has not said, the only thing we have in writing is the bill we considered last night did not enable him to do his job, but he says this bill will.

Mr. Speaker, I wish passing this bill would guarantee we will not suffer another terrorist attack. It won't, but it will provide a significant step towards getting the information we need and the information that the troops in the field need. It's worth passing tonight.

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