[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 76 (Thursday, May 8, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FISA COURT IS DOING ITS JOB

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 8, 2008

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Madam Speaker, as Congress has debated how to 
update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FISA, some have said 
that law is completely outdated.
  I support revisions to reflect changes in technology since FISA was 
enacted, but I think it is important to recognize that the basic law is 
sound and does not prevent the Government from acting to protect 
Americans.
  That point was well put in a recent editorial in the Rocky Mountain 
News, noting that the Justice Department has reported that in 2007 the 
special FISA court approved some 2,370 warrants authorizing 
surveillance of people in the United States believed to be in contact 
with international terrorist organizations while denying only 3 
requests for such warrants.
  This led the newspaper to conclude that ``The great number of 
warrants granted, compared to just three denied, indicates that the spy 
court is no great impediment to national security'' and, with regard to 
the Bush administration's proposals to rewrite FISA, ``The suspicion 
here is that the Bush administration simply doesn't want any checks on 
its eavesdropping powers.''
  I think that is a pretty accurate appraisal.
  For the information of our colleagues, here is the full text of the 
editorial:

              [From the Rocky Mountain News, May 2, 2008]

               Spy Court Keeping Up With Wiretap Requests

       The Bush administration has been asserting the right to 
     wiretap without seeking a warrant from a special court set up 
     for that purpose under the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence 
     Surveillance Act.
       However, a Justice Department report on the court's wiretap 
     approvals suggests it is not quite the hurdle the 
     administration made it out to be. Last year, the court 
     approved 2,370 warrants seeking wiretaps of people in this 
     country believed to be in contact with international 
     terrorist organizations.
       The court denied just three warrant applications and 
     partially denied another; 86 times the court asked the 
     government to amend its applications before granting 
     approval. The year before, the court denied only one 
     application and that just partially. This hardly sounds like 
     an onerous approval process.
       Since the number of warrants being sought has more than 
     doubled since 9/11, it also sounds as if the court is having 
     no problem keeping up with the workload. The suspicion here 
     is that the Bush administration simply doesn't want any 
     checks on its eavesdropping powers. And in seeking a rewrite 
     of the surveillance law, the administration did in fact seek 
     to greatly expand its powers to wiretap without warrants.
       The great number of warrants granted, compared to just 
     three denied, indicates that the spy court is no great 
     impediment to national security.

                          ____________________