Updating Our Intelligence Tools

Floor Speech

UPDATE OUR INTELLIGENCE TOOLS -- (House of Representatives - October 17, 2007)

(Mr. WILSON of South Carolina asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, in this day and age of new technologies and vicious unconventional terrorism, we need to provide our intelligence community with the tools and resources necessary to protect our families. That is why we must pass a permanent update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that will protect the privacy of Americans while restoring our intelligence-gathering capabilities.

Unfortunately, the RESTORE Act, the Democrat FISA bill, jeopardizes our intelligence capability and provides unprecedented protections for terrorists. It is a step in the wrong direction. The Protect America Act signed into law in August made critical changes that help intelligence officials properly track our enemies. It should be extended.

The National Intelligence Director, Mike McConnell, said this law was urgently needed by our intelligence professionals to close critical gaps in our capabilities and permit them to more readily follow terrorist threats. We should keep American families safer and make these changes permanent.

In conclusion God bless our troops and we will never forget September the 11th.

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