[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2013]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT EXTENSION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this morning the statement was made by the 
President in the Oval Office that he will refuse to sign a temporary 
extension of the current FISA law. This is a statement from the person 
who wants to unite, not divide. This is part of the Orwellian-speak we 
have had for 7 years out of the White House.
  Let's be very clear. President Bush, obviously, is more interested in 
politicizing intelligence than finding solutions to the problems we are 
facing in this difficult situation. Today, he continues to try to bully 
Congress. Let's not forget that we would not even be discussing this 
issue if not for his actions.
  What were some of those actions? In their unyielding efforts to 
expand Presidential powers, President Bush and Vice President Cheney 
created a system to conduct wiretapping, eavesdropping--including on 
American citizens--outside the bounds of longstanding Federal law. The 
President could easily have come to us and said: Let's change this law, 
and we would have gone along with probably little effort. But, no, he 
did not do that. He just went around the law, and when we passed the 
law to try to change it, he went around that too.
  Congress has repeatedly amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Act to reflect new technology and the legitimate needs of the 
intelligence community. We have done that often and for good reason. 
But, whether out of convenience, incompetence, or disdain for the rule 
of law, this administration chose to ignore Congress and basically 
ignored the law, ignored the Constitution.
  Congress is working updates to the FISA law as we speak. Senate 
Republicans and the White House have spent many weeks slow-walking the 
bill as part of the Republican strategy to jam the House. We have known 
that, we have talked about it, and they did a good job because we were 
not able to pass this bill until last night. I believe it is wrong and 
irresponsible for the White House to do this. Due to months of White 
House foot-dragging, the relevant House committees have only now just 
gotten important documents related to whether the Bush administration 
followed the law and the Constitution. I cannot speak about those 
documents on the floor, but people need time to review and analyze 
these documents. It is not four or five pages. So we must not let this 
critical issue be resolved by the White House trying to push everybody 
around.
  Let's work together on this issue. We are all working for the same 
goal: to protect American citizens against acts of terror. Congress is 
prepared to extend current law, the Protect America Act, by any length 
for Congress to complete the indepth analysis and negotiations 
necessary for long-term law broadly supported by the American people. 
If the President chooses to veto a short-term extension, as he said he 
would this morning, the responsibility for any ensuing intelligence-
collecting gap lies on his shoulders and that of Vice President Cheney 
and theirs alone, no one else.

                          ____________________