Congressman Davis Condemns Democrats' Failure to Protect the Nation

Press Release

Congressman Davis Condemns Democrats' Failure to Protect the Nation

Yesterday, the House Democratic Leadership made it clear that they are willing to put our nation at risk by allowing the Protect America Act to expire. Despite the fact that the Senate passed a bipartisan bill earlier this week to modernize the out-dated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Democrats in the House refused to bring this bill to the floor for a vote and instead recessed the House for the President's Day district work period. As a result, when the current extension expires at midnight tomorrow, our intelligence agencies will lose many important tools they need to protect our country.

FISA needs to be modernized to fill an intelligence gap created by the huge differences in communication technology available when the law was originally written and technology in use today. The bipartisan bill passed by the Senate would allow intelligence officials to collect information from foreign terrorists without having to obtain court approval, as well as provide legal protection for telecommunications companies who have assisted in these intelligence gathering efforts, a core provision of the modernization process.

Congressman Geoff Davis said, "We must ensure our intelligence officials have every tool needed to protect our nation. It is an outrage that House Democratic Leadership is actively preventing legislation already approved by a bipartisan Senate majority from being considered. This is a critical and immediate national security priority that Congress must address to provide our intelligence agencies the tools necessary to preserve our homeland security.

House Republicans were willing to stay in Washington during the President's Day district work period to complete work on this bill, but Democrats refused the invitation, making it clear that they are willing to sacrifice our national security for the sake of partisan bickering. It is unclear when the legislation will come to the House floor, but it is certain that, as a result of their decision, the Protect America Act will expire before any further modernization effort is accomplished.

On Tuesday, February 12, 2008, the U.S. Senate passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 with a bipartisan vote of 68-29.

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