[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRESS MUST FIX FISA PERMANENTLY

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, America's intelligence community has been 
without the tools it needs to monitor foreign terrorist communications 
for weeks. Last month, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill that put the 
necessary tools in place, but for some reason the majority will not 
allow a vote in the House on this broadly supported bill.
  The bipartisan Senate legislation had the votes of 21 Senate 
Democrats. It would have permanently fixed FISA and enabled our 
intelligence community to monitor foreign terrorists' electronics 
communications effectively.
  The House's refusal to consider this legislation has created 
bureaucratic hurdles that made our intelligence gathering on foreign 
terrorists unnecessarily difficult. As Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay 
Rockefeller said last month, America's intelligence gathering 
capability is being degraded.
  The House should not adjourn until we have passed a permanent FISA 
fix that protects Americans and equips our intelligence community with 
the tools to thwart the plans of foreign terrorists. The American 
people expect and deserve no less.

                          ____________________