William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry: “The operative part of this bill is a short paragraph which essentially brings up the checks and balances that were…”

“The operative part of this bill is a short paragraph which essentially brings up the checks and balances that were originally in the 1978 FISA and brings it up to 2007 technology. That is what's going on here. Now, there are some people who do not agree with the checks and balances that were in the 1978 FISA. Some people think it went too far one way, some people think it went too far another way. This bill does not touch that. What it does is it just brings up those same checks and balances with the way we communicate today, and the way that technology has changed. Mr. Speaker, I think it's important to emphasize what's going on here. Information is the critical element, which allows us to defend the country, which allows troops to operate in the field, which allows Homeland Security folks of all sorts to defend us against terrorism. We are not collecting, today, the information we were able to collect a short while ago.”