FISA Amendments Act of 2008

Floor Speech

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

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Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. America is at war. We have to do all we can to protect ourselves from those who seek to do us and our communities and our families harm. But for the past few weeks, we have unilaterally disarmed, because this House has failed to pass an acceptable long-term extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and it will fail again today.

The United States Senate passed a workable bipartisan compromise by a vote of 68-29 that extended FISA for nearly 6 years. The Senate bill provided necessary immunity to communication providers who aided the government after 9/11, and they are now facing numerous frivolous lawsuits as a result. It also closed a massive loophole in our foreign intelligence surveillance laws that prevents us from listening to terrorists in one foreign country who are talking to a terrorist in another foreign country; yet the Senate bill is not before us today.

It is extraordinary that a bipartisan compromise and accomplishment in the United States Senate is not being considered before this House today.

Last August, Republicans and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee came together in the Protect America Act and we forged a cBREAK IN THE TRANSCRIPTompromise, but it was only embraced in the short term. And, sadly, the Senate will not pass this bill, even if it passes the House today, and if it did, the President will veto it. So what we are involved in here is a futile attempt at compromise that will fail.

Speaking less as a Congressman and more as a father and as an American who was here on September 11, I urge my colleagues to take a breath, to step back, to examine the spirit of compromise evidenced by our colleagues in the Senate, and find a way to give our foreign intelligence gathering the tools they need to protect our families.

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