    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
    [September 19, 2007]
    [Pages 1210-1211]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following a Visit to the National Security Agency at Fort Meade,
    Maryland
    September 19, 2007

        Good morning. I have just received a briefing from Director
    McConnell and Lieutenant General
    Alexander as well as other members of my
    national security team. I first want to thank the men and women who work
    out here for their dedication and their hard work. The work they're
    doing here is necessary to protect our country from an enemy who would
    like to attack us again. The people who work out here understand that
    the Federal Government has no more urgent responsibility than to protect
    the American people.
        Every day, our intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security
    professionals confront enemies who are smart, who are ruthless, and who
    are determined to murder innocent people to achieve their objectives. It
    is the job of Congress to give the professionals the tools they need to
    do their work as effectively as possible.
        You don't have to worry about the motivation of the people out here;
    what we do have to worry about is to make sure that they have all the
    tools they need to do their job. One of the most important tools they
    use is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The law
    provides a critical legal foundation that allows our intelligence
    community to monitor terrorist communications while protecting the
    freedoms of the American people. Unfortunately, the law is dangerously
    out of date.
        When FISA was passed nearly 30 years ago, the legal protections were
    based on differences in the way that domestic and overseas
    communications were transmitted. New technologies have come into being
    since the law was written. Technologies like the disposable cell phone
    or the Internet eliminated many of the differences. So one of the
    consequences of the way the law was originally drafted is that when
    technology changed, legal protections meant only for the people in the
    United States began applying to terrorists on foreign soil. As a result,
    our intelligence professionals reported that they were missing a
    significant amount of real-time intelligence needed to protect the
    American people. So earlier this year, Director McConnell sent Congress legislation to fix the problem.
        In August, a bipartisan majority in Congress passed the Protect
    America Act. This law has helped close a critical intelligence gap,
    allowing us to collect important foreign intelligence and information
    about terrorist plots. The problem is, the law expires on February 1st;
    that's 135 days from today. The threat from Al Qaida is not going to
    expire in 135 days.
        So I call on Congress to make the Protect America Act permanent. The
    need for action is clear. Director McConnell has warned that unless the FISA reforms in the Act
    are made permanent, our national security professionals will lose
    critical tools they need to protect our country. Without these tools,
    it'll be harder to figure out what our enemies are doing to train,
    recruit, and infiltrate operatives into America.

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    Without these tools, our country will be much more vulnerable to attack.
        Unfortunately, some in Congress now want to restrict the tools.
    These restrictions would impede the flow of information that helps us
    protect our people. These restrictions would reopen gaps in our
    intelligence that we had just closed. As I did in August, in evaluating
    any FISA bill, I will ask Director McConnell whether the legislation gives him what he needs to
    protect our Nation. The question I'm going to ask is, do our
    professionals have the tools necessary to do the job to protect the
    American people from further attack?
        In addition to making the Protection America Act permanent, I urge
    Congress to take up other critical proposals included in the
    comprehensive FISA reform my administration submitted last April. It's
    particularly important for Congress to provide meaningful liability
    protection to those companies now facing multibillion dollar lawsuits
    only because they are believed to have assisted in efforts to defend our
    Nation following the 9/11 attacks. Additionally, without this
    protection, state secrets could be revealed in connection with those
    lawsuits, and our ability to protect our people would be weakened.
        At stake in this debate is more than a piece of legislation. The
    decisions Congress makes will directly affect our ability to save
    American lives. I look forward to working with Congress to enact this
    legislation as quickly as possible, so that our intelligence officials
    will continue to have the tools they need to keep the American people
    safe. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:50 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, USA, Director, National Security Agency.