[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
[December 1, 2007]
[Pages 1509-1510]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
December 1, 2007

    Good morning. Next week, Congress returns from its Thanksgiving 
recess. Members are coming back to a lot of unfinished business. And the 
clock will be ticking because they have only a few weeks to get their 
work done before leaving again for Christmas.
    Congress must address four critical priorities. First, Congress 
needs to pass a bill to fund our troops in combat. Second, Congress 
needs to make sure our intelligence professionals can continue to 
monitor terrorist communications so we can prevent attacks against our 
people. Third, Congress needs to pass a bill to protect middle class 
families from higher taxes. And fourth, Congress needs to pass all the 
remaining appropriations bills to keep the Federal Government running.
    Congress's first priority should be to provide the funds and 
flexibility to keep our troops safe and help them protect our Nation. 
Beginning in February, I submitted detailed funding requests to Congress 
to fund operations in the war on terror. Our military has waited on 
these funds for months. The funds include money to carry out combat 
operations against the enemy in Afghanistan and Iraq. They include money 
to train the Afghan and Iraqi security forces to take on more 
responsibility for the defense of their countries. And they include 
money for intelligence operations to protect our troops on the 
battlefield.
    Pentagon officials recently warned Congress that continued delay in 
funding our troops will soon begin to have a damaging impact on the 
operations of our military. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has already notified Congress that he will transfer 
money from accounts used to fund other activities of the military 
services to pay for current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and no 
more money can be moved. So he has directed the Army and Marine Corps to 
develop a plan to lay off civilian employees, terminate contracts, and 
prepare our military bases across the country for reduced operations. 
Military leaders have told us what they need to do their job. It is time 
for the Congress to do its job and give our troops what they need to 
protect America.
    Another priority Congress must address is the Foreign Intelligence 
Surveillance Act, or FISA. FISA provides a critical legal framework 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. In August, Congress passed legislation 
to help modernize FISA. That bill closed critical intelligence gaps, 
allowing us to collect important foreign intelligence. The problem is, 
this new law expires on February 1st, while the threat from our 
terrorist enemies does not.
    Congress must take action now to keep the intelligence gaps closed 
and make certain our national security professionals do not lose a 
critical tool for keeping America safe. As part of these efforts, 
Congress also needs to provide meaningful liability protection to those 
companies now facing multibillion dollar lawsuits only because they are 
believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend our Nation following 
the 9/11 attacks.
    Congress's third priority should be to fix the Alternative Minimum 
Tax. The AMT was designed to ensure that the wealthy paid their fair 
share of taxes. But when Congress passed the AMT decades ago, it was not 
indexed for inflation. As a result, the AMT's higher tax burden is 
creeping up on more and more middle class families. If Congress fails to 
pass legislation to fix the AMT, as many as 25 million Americans would 
be subject to the AMT. On average, these taxpayers would have to send an 
extra

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$2,000 to the IRS next year. This is a huge tax increase that taxpayers 
do not deserve and Congress must stop.
    Finally, Congress has important work to do on the budget. One of 
Congress's most basic duties is to fund the day-to-day operations of the 
Federal Government. Yet we are in the final month of the year, and 
Congress still has work to do on 11 of the 12 annual spending bills. 
Congressional leaders are now talking about piling all these bills into 
one monstrous piece of legislation, which they will load up with 
billions of dollars in earmarks and porkbarrel spending.
    This is not what congressional leaders promised when they took 
control of the Congress at the start of the year. In January, one 
congressional leader declared, ``No longer can we 
waste time here in the Capitol, while families in America struggle to 
get ahead.'' He was right. Congressional leaders need to keep their word 
and pass the remaining spending bills in a fiscally responsible way.
    The end of the year is approaching fast, and Americans are working 
hard to finish up their business. Yet when it comes to getting its 
business done, Congress is only getting started. Members of Congress now 
have only a few weeks left before they head home for the holidays. 
Before they do so, I urge them to do their job: fund our troops, protect 
our citizens, provide taxpayers relief, and responsibly fund our 
Government.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 7:30 a.m. on November 30 in the 
Cabinet Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on December 
1. The transcript was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on November 30, but was embargoed for release until the 
broadcast. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of this address.