Protect America Act of 2007

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 5349, a bill to extend the Protect America Act of 2007 for 21 days.

Now it's hard for me to come to this floor and oppose an extension of a bill that I support, and supported in a bipartisan manner, Mr. Speaker.

It was this summer, I believe last August, that Republicans and Democrats came together on the Judiciary Committee and worked out a solution for an extension that came to be known as the Protect America Act. And we've heard in the course of this debate, eloquently stated on both sides, what the issues are here. We have antiquated foreign intelligence surveillance laws. The technology that has exploded across the globe in the last 25 years has occurred without a significant updating of those laws that govern the means and the manner and the technology whereby we can collect intelligence. And so we find ourselves, essentially, as the hub of communications in the world in the United States of America. You've heard the percentages, the enormous amount of communications that pass through the United States of America. And yet we have this massive loophole in our intelligence surveillance laws that does not permit us to listen to a terrorist in one foreign country talking to a terrorist in another foreign country.

When we worked out the compromise this summer, it was built, Mr. Speaker, I believe, on an understanding between Republicans and Democrats that that ought not to be, we ought to solve that problem in an equitable and bipartisan way. And I was pleased to support that extension and legislation for a period of 6 months.

But what I struggle with today is now, in the aftermath of that, the contrast between the work in the House and the Senate is rather startling. Yesterday, the Senate approved a bipartisan bill supported by nearly 70 percent of the Senate to close the terrorist loophole in our intelligence laws. It represented a strong bipartisan compromise between Congress and the administration. And yet here in the House of Representatives we passed a 6-month extension. A few weeks ago we passed a 15-day extension. Now I believe we're passing a 21-day extension. And yet the American people, I believe, know in their heart of hearts our enemy does not think in the short term and, therefore, our solutions must occur in the long term. And when it comes to the ability of our intelligence community during this administration or whomever will be the next administration charged with protecting this country, I believe it is imperative that we call the question. I believe it is imperative that we rise today, respectfully to my colleagues on the other side, most especially the chairman whom I esteem, and say enough is enough. We need to modernize our foreign intelligence surveillance laws today. We need to find a bipartisan compromise as we did last summer. We need to find a bipartisan compromise as the United States Senate did yesterday.

And I say again with a heavy heart, our enemy does not conspire to harm us in the short term. Our enemy conspires to harm us in the long term: to harm our people, to harm our families, to harm our children and our interests around the globe. We must, in this Congress, find a way beyond politics, as we did last summer, as the Senate did yesterday, to repair those holes in our foreign intelligence surveillance laws and give our intelligence community the legal authority and tools that they will need to protect us in the long term.

I urge my colleagues to reject the bill to extend the Protect America Act for 21 days and call the question on this floor. We need a long-term solution to what ails our intelligence laws.

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