Andy Biggs: “First of all, when the gentleman starts talking about that, he raises a point that I have been arguing vociferously…”

“First of all, when the gentleman starts talking about that, he raises a point that I have been arguing vociferously about for some time, and that is Republicans manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory over and over again. We negotiate against ourselves. That is what is happening on the supplemental. That is what is happening on the NDAA. We passed out of the Judiciary Committee today a bill, hugely bipartisan, 35 people voted for it, 2 against it, including massive reforms, reforms that groups across the spectrum, from right to left, Republican and Democrat, have said these are the reforms we need to see. {time} 1945 The leverage goes away when you give an extension into April for FISA in its current form, which is what the Speaker is acquiescing to after telling us he wasn't going to go there. That is negotiating against yourself. Why is that? What happens? The leverage against the Senate on FISA then goes away. I was not surprised to know that Chairman Turner said he will let the Judiciary bill come to the floor. Why wouldn't he? Because he knows that the leverage is now gone and the Senate has no incentive to take up a meaningful reform bill. That is the problem. It goes back to the border. The border is the same way. There were 12,000 people that came across yesterday. That was an all-time single-day record. There were 12,000 people encountered. That does not include the 10,000 people that got away.…”