Kay Granger: “Once again the Protect America Act is set to expire. If the bipartisan Senate FISA bill is not passed in time, our…”

“Once again the Protect America Act is set to expire. If the bipartisan Senate FISA bill is not passed in time, our intelligence agency will be blinded to our enemies' plans and required to consult a lawyer before eavesdropping on foreign terrorists. The House should immediately pass the Senate's bipartisan bill which passed the Senate by a 68-29 vote. Our intelligence community needs a long-term fix in our intelligence laws, not a month-to-month extension. More importantly, the Senate FISA bill grants liability protection to telecommunications companies that helped the government after September 11. Allowing these companies to be subjected to frivolous lawsuits threatens their cooperation in the future. This could have a crippling effect on America's counterterrorism efforts. Yesterday, the Democrat majority chose partisan politics in the face of a strong bipartisan solution that directly determines the fate of our intelligence gathering abilities, and the House Democrat leadership failed. The American people have asked for solutions, not political grandstanding. We should take up the bipartisan Senate FISA bill immediately. This cannot wait until we return from the President's Day recess.”