Political Quotes

“It has now been 20 days since the law that allows us to collect foreign intelligence abroad has lapsed. We are without the authority we need to collect intelligence against our terrorist enemy. The law expired February 16. The Senate passed a bill, a bipartisan bill, with 68 Senators voting yes, Democrats and Republicans. It was fashioned by the Intelligence Committee which passed it 13 to 2, a wide bipartisan margin, clearly a consensus that the United States must have authority for intelligence collection against our terrorist enemies. We passed that bill, sent it to the House of Representatives hoping that the House would act quickly, send it to the President for signature so we could get on with this important aspect of the war against terror. So far the House of Representatives leadership has not brought the bill to the floor of the House; this notwithstanding the fact that it clearly would pass. We know, because of letters Members of the House of Representatives have written to their leadership, that Democrats and Republicans together have more than enough votes to pass this legislation we in the Senate passed. Yet the House leadership sits on its hands. Three weeks ago the House leadership said it needed 3 weeks to get the job done. That 3 weeks expires Sunday. But the House is not even in session now.”