Political Quotes

“let me begin my remarks, I know tomorrow we are going to begin more formal debate on the FISA legislation. This is to be a continuation of the effort, for those who wonder what this is, this is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This was the debate which was the last item of debate before the holiday break back in mid- December. The legislation was withdrawn and was not completed. Senator Rockefeller, Senator Bond, the chairman and the ranking Republican, and members of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Leahy, Senator Specter, and members of the Judiciary Committee, Republicans and Democrats have worked on this legislation. I wish to begin my comments by thanking them for their efforts on trying to develop a piece of legislation that would reflect the realities of today. There has been some history of this bill. My intention this evening is to spend some time talking about a section of this bill dealing with retroactive immunity, which my colleagues and others who followed this debate know I spent some 10 hours on the floor of this body back in December expressing strong opposition to that provision of this bill; not over the general thrust of the bill. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is critically important to our country. It provides a means by which you can have a proper warrant extended or given out by governmental authorities to collect data, information, critical to our security.”