Political Quotes

“Again, we rise with a renewed consideration of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, or the FISA Amendments Act, of 2008. I thank the chairman for his very powerful and thoughtful statement on behalf of the original bill presented by the Senate Intelligence Committee, with the managers' amendments that we will incorporate. Simply put, this legislation gives the Intelligence Community the tools it needs right now, and over the next 6 years, to protect our country. The Protect America Act, passed by Congress in August of this past year, allowed the intelligence community to close critical intelligence gaps. I disagree that the Protect America Act was flawed. It was a temporary measure. It didn't deal with all of the subjects we needed to deal with, including protections for carriers alleged to participate. But it did not cut back on any of the basic protections in FISA, and it served to provide us the means in this 6-month period to collect vitally needed intelligence on foreign subjects who might be planning attacks either on our troops abroad or in the United States. But this vital legislation expires in 1 week, and we must not let those gaps reopen.”