[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2462-2463]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FISA IS STILL IN FULL EFFECT

  (Ms. SHEA-PORTER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. SHEA-PORTER. Mr. Speaker, the President and his followers are 
telling the American public that the fight about the Foreign 
Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, is endangering America; 
but the reality is that FISA is still fully in effect and 
administration officials have acknowledged that.
  What this fight is really about is the President wants to give 
telecom companies retroactive immunity for turning over private 
information about Americans to the executive branch without a court 
order. Now, some companies refuse to go along, so obviously there could 
be a problem here. We should not and cannot give immunity until we know 
what we are giving immunity for. This is like a defendant coming into 
court saying to a judge, I may or may not have done something wrong. I 
don't want to tell you about it, but I want you to say that I am not 
liable, and then the judge agrees.
  We would not accept that for an individual, and we must not accept it 
for

[[Page 2463]]

corporations or for the government either. As John Adams said, we are a 
government of laws, not men, and we must honor the Constitution.

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