[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
[February 15, 2008]
[Pages 208-209]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following a Meeting With Congressional Leaders
February 15, 2008

    This morning I spoke to the president of Northern Illinois 
University. I told the president that a lot 
of folks today will be praying for the families of the victims and for 
the Northern Illinois University community. Obviously a tragic situation 
on that campus, and I ask our fellow citizens to offer their blessings, 
blessings of comfort and blessings of strength.
    We also just discussed a serious problem facing our country, and 
that is the fact that House leaders blocked a good piece of legislation 
that would give our intelligence community the tools they need to 
protect America from a terrorist attack.
    The American citizens must understand--clearly understand that there 
is still a threat on the homeland, there's still an enemy which would 
like to do us harm, and that we've got to give our professionals the 
tools they need to be able to figure out what the enemy is up to so that 
we can stop it.
    The Senate passed a good bipartisan bill that makes sure our 
intelligence community has the tools necessary to protect America from 
this real threat. And I want to thank you all and thank the Democrats in 
the United States Senate who worked closely with Mitch and John to get a strong piece of legislation, with a 68-
vote majority, out of the Senate.
    This bill comes to the House of Representatives, and it was blocked. 
And by blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in danger 
of an attack. By not giving the professionals the tools they need,

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it's going to be a lot harder to do the job we need to be able to defend 
America.
    People say, ``Oh, it doesn't matter if this law hasn't been 
renewed.'' It does matter; it matters for a variety of reasons. It 
matters because the intelligence officials won't have tools necessary to 
get as much information as we possibly can to protect you. And it 
matters because these telephone companies that work collaboratively with 
us to protect the American people are afraid they're going to get sued. 
And the American people have got to understand, these lawsuits make it 
harder for us to convince people to help protect you. And so by blocking 
this good piece of legislation, our professionals tell me that they 
don't have all the tools they need to do their job.
    And so now the House and Senate are off on a 12-day recess without 
getting the people's business done. And when they come back from that 
12-day recess, the House leaders must understand that the decision they 
made to block good legislation has made it harder for us to protect you, 
the American people, and we expect them to get a good bill to my desk--
which is the Senate bill--as soon as possible.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:55 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to John G. Peters, president, 
Northern Illinois University. He also referred to H.R. 3773.