With a little prodding from Mel, I wrote to Senator Chambliss yesterday urgining him to vote against the FISA bill. His speedy response is below the fold:
Dear Ms. Brock:
Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 2248, the “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act.” It is good to hear from you.
S. 2248 was introduced on October 26, 2007, and referred to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The Senate Judiciary Committee subsequently requested referral of the bill and is considering it now. Since 1978, Congress has provided rigorous oversight of our Intelligence Community and enacted valuable legislation, such as FISA, in order to guide those who collect intelligence. Congress and the Intelligence Community have taken steps to ensure that U.S. citizens are protected from unnecessary government intrusions into their private lives while at the same time balancing the government’s need to collect vital intelligence necessary to ward off terrorist attacks.
The post 9/11 environment in which Congress must now consider FISA is much different from the Cold War era. Our enemies communicate through more sophisticated means and in a more security conscious manner than in 1978. These evolving threats must be considered by Congress during the debate on FISA modernization. For instance, when FISA was enacted in 1978, Congress used language that was technology-dependent and related specifically to the telecommunications systems that existed at the time, such as “wire and radio communications.” In 1978, most foreign communications went through the air rather than over a wire and most domestic communications were on a wire. Today, however, most domestic communications, like cell phone communications, travel through the air and most international communications travel over a wire. This change in technology has altered critically the way in which our Intelligence Community conducts electronic surveillance. It is critical that Congress enact FISA legislation to ensure that our Intelligence Community has the tools and the legal framework necessary to protect our country from terrorist attacks and to collect vital foreign intelligence information.
Another important provision included in the bill provides our telecommunications carriers with liability relief for any alleged assistance they may have provided the President following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The government often needs assistance from the private sector in order to protect our national security and in return they should be able to rely on government’s assurances. The civil suits that have been brought against electronic communication providers seek billions of dollars in damages. It is imperative that we provide protections to providers that legally cooperate with the Intelligence Community to provide information that is crucial to thwarting future terrorist attacks. Without these protections, electronic communications providers may be reluctant to assist the intelligence community in ascertaining information vital to protecting our country.
The world changed on September 11, 2001, and it is vitally important that the President of the United States have the power and authority to act on information to protect the American people from future acts of terrorism by al- Qai da ‘ and others who target the United States. Although not a perfect bill, I supported the FISA Amendments Act during consideration in the Intelligence Committee due to the bi-partisan process it underwent and in order to provide our Intelligence Community with the minimum requirements it needs in an environment with rapidly changing technology. While the legislation provides much-needed updates to FISA, I believe the bill needs to be further amended in order to achieve the delicate balance it attempts to strike and I look forward to working with the full Senate to debate and improve the legislation before final enactment in order to secure the privacy rights of Americans while protecting our national security.
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