Protect America Act Must be Made Permanent

PROTECT AMERICA ACT MUST BE MADE PERMANENT -- (House of Representatives - February 25, 2008)

(Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, it has been more than a week since the House left town without voting on critical intelligence legislation. This bipartisan legislation would have permanently fixed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FISA, and enabled our intelligence community to monitor effectively foreign terrorists in electronic communications.

A 6-month fix to FISA, the Protect America Act, expired on February 17. It had allowed our intelligence agencies to monitor foreign terrorists' electronic communications on foreign soil without time-consuming court orders. But the House refused to take up the bill that passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support by a vote of 68-29. More than 20 Democrats voted in favor of this legislation to make the Protect America Act permanent. By refusing to consider this legislation, the House is embarking on an act of reckless irresponsibility.

America cannot afford to hit pause on our surveillance of foreign terrorists. Now that the Protect America Act has expired, our intelligence community faces cumbersome bureaucratic hurdles to monitoring the communication of suspected foreign terrorists. This paper-pushing approach takes precious time, which could mean the difference in thwarting the terrorists' plans or even protecting the lives of our troops.

We must pass this bill now. The votes are there. Not acting endangers our Nation's security and puts barriers in the way of fighting radical terrorists. This bill has broad bipartisan support, and refusing to allow it to come up for a vote amounts to putting the so-called civil liberties of terrorists before the safety of all Americans.

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