Political Quotes

“I do want to say, based on the remarks of the distinguished Republican leader, I, too, appreciate the work of Senator Rockefeller and Senator Bond, but I also appreciate the work done by the Judiciary Committee and Senator Leahy. As a result of that work, the bill has already been made better and, hopefully, we can adopt some of these amendments today. We, for example, have as a result of the work done by the Judiciary Committee a compromise reached on a number of amendments that have made this bill better, including a Feingold amendment providing Congress with FISA Court documents that will facilitate congressional oversight and enable Congress to better understand the court's interpretation of the laws we passed; a Whitehouse amendment giving the FISA Court the discretion to stay lower FISA Court decisions pending appeal rather than requiring a stay; a Kennedy amendment providing that under the new authority provided by this bill the Government may not intentionally acquire communications when it knows ahead of time that the sender and all intended recipients are in the United States. The bill has been made better.”