[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out of date.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.