Political Quotes

“I thank our leaders for getting us on this very important bill. As we have discussed before, the failure to modernize and authorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act last summer has caused serious gaps in our intelligence capability. When the Protect America Act that was introduced by our Republican leader, Senator McConnell, and me last year finally passed, we put the intelligence community back in the business of intercepting critical intelligence communications from foreign terrorists talking to each other about possible activities in the United States, or against our troops and our allies elsewhere, and obviously any of those who were threatening the United States. I can tell you, without going into detail, that the foreign intelligence collection from these has been about the most valuable piece of information we have with respect to terrorist intent. So I appreciate the fact that this body is ready to move forward. I hope we will have a way forward to get it done by the time we leave for the Fourth of July recess. It is critical we get this done promptly. If we go into late July or even into August without getting it done, serious consequences will start to impact our ability to collect intelligence.”