[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6299-6300]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I note as I come to the well 
here that it's now 2:49 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon, a time when 
across this Nation the folks who worked the day shift are getting ready 
to complete their work; the folks who are working the afternoon or 
evening shift are getting ready to head off to work or on their way to 
work; and the folks who work the midnight shift across the Nation are 
probably just rubbing their eyes as they wake up and begin their day or 
bedding down as they begin their rest before they get back at it again 
this evening.
  Where is the House of Representatives? Well, Madam Speaker, you look 
around the House of Representatives and they've gone home. They've all 
gone home. Now, why is that important? Well it's important, Madam 
Speaker, because I think it demonstrates another day demonstrating the 
crisis of leadership that we have in this House of Representatives.
  Madam Speaker, I come to the well today at this time to document that 
we

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are now 62 days into a unilateral disarmament of the United States of 
America as it relates to folks who want to do us harm all across this 
world, 62 days in which we have not had in place the Protect America 
Act, 62 days in which we have not had in place the appropriate rules 
and protections for communication companies to allow our United States 
Government to listen and intercept electronic communication between a 
foreign individual in a foreign land who wishes to do America harm and 
another foreign individual in a foreign land who wishes to do us harm.
  Did you get that, Madam Speaker? Non-U.S. citizen, not on U.S. soil, 
talking or communicating through electronic communication to another 
non-U.S. citizen, not on U.S. soil, about how to injure Americans 
either on the battlefield or here in our homeland.
  It's called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The bill was 
the Protect America Act. Sixty-two days ago, the leadership in this 
House of Representatives allowed that to expire. And why? For some 
reason, they believed that lawyers ought to be able to represent that 
foreign individual in a foreign land who want to do us harm with the 
same protections that you and I enjoy as American citizens.
  Madam Speaker, when I go home to the Sixth District of Georgia and I 
tell people about this, they shake their head and say, what on earth is 
going on? Where is the leadership? And I agree. Where is the 
leadership?
  Madam Speaker, there is a crisis of leadership in this House of 
Representatives, whether it is on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Act, or the Protect America Act, to allow our intelligence community 
the tools that they need to keep us protected. Whether it's on not 
doing anything positive about the price of gasoline all across this 
Nation, the only thing this House has done, this leadership has done is 
to increase the cost of domestic production of oil by increasing taxes. 
And who pays those ultimately? You got it, Madam Speaker. Americans.
  Whether it is allowing the free and fair trade agreement with 
Colombia to not come to the floor, to change the rules so that it can't 
come to the floor so that we kick in the teeth the only real friend 
that we have in South America, one of the few friends we have in South 
America, a democratically elected government; or whether it is, again, 
not allowing our intelligence community to listen to a terrorist on 
foreign soil, talking to another terrorist on foreign soil so that we 
know what the bad guys are going to do before they do it.
  Madam Speaker, that's a crisis of leadership.

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