FISA Amendments Act of 2008

FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - March 14, 2008)

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Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 1041 provides for consideration of the Senate amendment to H.R. 3773, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The rule makes in order a motion offered by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee to concur in the Senate amendment with the amendment printed in the Rules Committee report on this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, we have come a long way on the crucial issues of intelligence-gathering. I commend Chairmen CONYERS and REYES for their diligence in providing much-needed attention in evaluation of FISA, while ensuring that we provide our Nation's intelligence community with the necessary tools and resources to prevent a future terrorist attack on our Nation.

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Over the last few weeks, my office phone lines have been burning up with calls from constituents regarding FISA and the need for Congress to take action. Unfortunately, the calls were prompted by a far-reaching misinformation campaign aimed to scare the public into believing that the House majority is in some way prohibiting our Nation's intelligence community from monitoring the terrorists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only are these claims false, they are unconscionable.

I don't believe any Member of this institution, Republican or Democrat, wants to shackle our Nation's intelligence community from preventing another terrorist attack. Frankly, I am getting alarmed by the claims by some of my colleagues. For the last couple of weeks, we have heard only one message from the other side of the aisle: take up the Senate bill because it has the support of the President. I have no interest in being a rubber stamp for this administration, nor of any elected body, even the Senate. That is not why I was sent to Congress. I certainly mean no disrespect to the Senate, but my constituents sent me to Congress to use my judgment and conscience to help govern.

The chairman of the Judiciary Committee said it best earlier in the week during our Rules Committee hearing when he said we are not an appendage of the Senate. I couldn't agree with Mr. Conyers more. It is our responsibility to the American people to exercise our legislative duty. Furthermore, with an issue like FISA and intelligence-gathering, I am confident that the American people would expect the House to exercise that duty to the fullest extent possible.

We are a bicameral form of government. The changes we are proposing to the Senate bill today represent a powerful step forward in the legislative process. The administration has made it overwhelmingly clear that they need to use electronic surveillance to track and identify terrorist targets. And despite the misinformation campaign and the rhetoric, the proposal we will vote on today makes it easier for our Nation's intelligence community to wiretap suspected terrorists by explicitly not requiring a court order to wiretap targets believed to be outside the United States. In addition, the proposal provides for surveillance of terrorists and other targets overseas who may be communicating with Americans.

And we are all well aware of the issue of immunity for telecom companies. It seems like that is all we have talked about here for the past several months. As a former prosecutor, I can say from experience and without hesitation, you never provide immunity to anyone unless you are sure whom you are giving the immunity to and why you are giving the immunity out.

One point that has not received enough emphasis over the last few weeks is that the telecom companies have immunity under current law. However, the problem is that anytime a telecommunication company goes to court, this administration steps in and says this is classified material and the question is deemed state secret, and therefore you are not allowed to talk about it. In that way, the telecom companies are not allowed to even defend themselves, but rather have to sit there and answer for any charges civilly made against them.

I, for one, couldn't agree more that if the intelligence community goes to a telecom company with adequate authorization and says, We need communication records for person X because he or she is believed to be a terrorist, the telecom company deserves to be afforded that protection. Unfortunately, we have absolutely no idea what the administration requested and what the telecom companies have provided.

Our proposal provides a commonsense, balanced approach to address the immunity issue. We want to provide the telecom companies with a legal way to present their defense in a secure proceeding and in a secure way in district court without the administration asserting state secret privileges to block those defenses.

And, again, don't be fooled by the misinformation campaign. We are not talking about broadcasting the content of those defenses over the public airwaves, rather just the opposite will be done in camera and in secret. This would involve ex parte proceedings in camera. That is one-on-one telecom company and a Federal district court judge behind closed doors. That way, the determination of whether or not the classified material is, in fact, a state secret is made by a neutral third party and not just this administration.

Finally, our proposal establishes a bipartisan national commission with subpoena power to investigate and report to the American people on the administration's warrantless surveillance activities and to recommend procedures and protections for the future in much the same way that the 9/11 Commission did.

Mr. Speaker, we must bring the misinformation campaign and partisan wrangling to an end. There is no question that there are groups and individuals out there who seek to do us harm. There is no question that my colleagues and I want to give the people who protect us from the danger every tool they need to keep fighting terrorism. The proposal we will vote on today will, in fact, provide our Nation's intelligence community with the resources to prevent future acts of terrorism while protecting the freedoms of the citizens under the Constitution. Everyone in this body wants the same thing, and that is to protect American citizens. This bill does exactly that.

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