Press Conference with Rep. Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Hoyer (D-MD), House Majority Leader; Rep. Reyes (D-TX), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Statement
Press Conference with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), House Majority Leader; Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence - The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and The Protect America Act
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REP. CONYERS: Thank you, Mr. Leader, Chairman Reyes.
This is an important circumstance that we find ourselves in. It's a very important, serious one. And I am not happy of course with the president and House Republicans' efforts to cast blame and point fingers about the FISA activity, and an appalling disregard of the facts. The expiration of the Protect America Act is the Republicans' choice. They chose to play a reckless game, political brinksmanship with our national security.
This week, every single Republican in the House voted against the 21-day extension that I proposed. Both them and the president cannot have it both ways. They are simultaneously arguing that the Protect America Act is essential to national security, and then they turn around and engineer the defeat of an extension so that they can accuse us of letting it lapse.
I don't think many here are fooled. The country is safe and will continue to be so, because of this act, the Protect America Act. Surveillance does not expire until this weekend. An existing surveillance will not be shut off. If new dangers arise, we can get emergency FISA orders and, of course, the FISA Court backlog has already been cleared.
And so I was very pleased at the results of our first meeting. I have a call out to my ranking member, Lamar Smith, and we want to make this as a productive, expeditious activity as possible. We're wrestling with what to me is the key question of retroactive immunity. And we have, I think, the beginnings of what can lead to a positive resolution of that problem.
There remains some other difficult issues, but I haven't seen anything that leads me to agree with the president that providing such sweeping telecom amnesty is more in the public interest than our constitutional rights. We're committed to work with Republicans and the administration to pass a long-term FISA reform that protects our liberties and security alike. We do not have to make a choice between the two. We can do both very effectively. And to do that, we have to reject some of the old, tired rhetoric of fear, and join together in a cooperative manner.
It's very important to us that we include, as quickly as we can, all of the members on the Judiciary, in an ability to go over the documents and records that are already available to only half the members of the Judiciary.
And so I hope that the president of the United States will join us in putting American's civil liberties before a corporate interest.
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REP. CONYERS: It seems to me that elementary experience in the law tells us that you can't grant any kind of immunity, much less retroactive immunity, unless you know what it is you're immunizing. And that's the predicament that a lot of my friends in the Congress feel very strongly about.
After meeting this morning with Chairman Rockefeller, I feel better that there's some way -- we always have to come together. That's what the legislative process is about.
And there are a couple of ways that have been tossed out but, of course, I don't want to read about them tomorrow. (Laughter.)
So believe me, I'm feeling better about this already. To me, that's the sticking part. I think on Title I, there are a few things that need to be ratcheted down, but I think that's the main issue for many of my friends in the Congress. And I'm feeling that we're going to have to come together one way or the other, and so you meet somewhere different from where you started out.
(Cross talk.)
No hints. No hints. (Laughter.)
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