[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 8 (Monday, March 3, 2008)]
[Pages 265-266]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

February 23, 2008

    Good morning. This Thursday, Laura and I returned from an inspiring 
visit to Africa. In Benin and Tanzania, we met leaders who are fighting 
HIV/AIDS and malaria and people whose lives have been saved by the 
generosity of the American people. In Rwanda, we saw a nation overcoming 
the pain of genocide with courage and grace and hope. In Ghana, we met 
entrepreneurs who are exporting their products and building a more 
prosperous future. And in Liberia, we saw a nation that is recovering 
from civil war, led by the first democratically elected woman President 
on the continent. Laura and I returned to Washington impressed by the 
energy, optimism, and potential of the African people.
    Members of Congress will soon be returning to Washington as well, 
and they have urgent business to attend to. They left town on a 10-day 
recess without passing vital legislation giving our intelligence 
professionals the tools they need to quickly and effectively monitor 
foreign terrorist communications. Congress's failure to pass this 
legislation was irresponsible. It will leave our Nation increasingly 
vulnerable to attack, and Congress must fix this damage to our national 
security immediately.
    The way ahead is clear. The Senate has already passed a good bill by 
an overwhelming bipartisan majority. This bill has strong bipartisan 
support in the House of Representatives and would pass if given an up-
or-down vote. But House leaders are blocking this legislation, and the 
reason can be summed up in three words: class-action lawsuits.
    The Senate bill would prevent plaintiffs' attorneys from suing 
companies believed to have helped defend America after the 9/11 attacks. 
More than 40 of these lawsuits have been filed, seeking hundreds of 
billions of dollars in damages from these companies. It is unfair and 
unjust to threaten these companies with financial ruin only because they 
are believed to have done the right thing and helped their country.
    But the highest cost of all is to our national security. Without 
protection from lawsuits, private companies will be increasingly 
unwilling to take the risk of helping us with vital intelligence 
activities. After the Congress failed to act last week, one 
telecommunications company executive was asked by the Wall Street 
Journal how his company would respond to a request for help. He answered 
that because of the threat of lawsuits, quote, ``I'm not doing it. I'm 
not going to do something voluntarily.'' In other words, the House's 
refusal to act is undermining our ability to get cooperation from 
private companies, and that undermines our efforts to protect us from 
terrorist attack.
    Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell recently explained 
that the vast majority of the communications infrastructure we rely on 
in the United States is owned and operated by the private sector. 
Because of the failure to provide liability protection, he says, private 
companies who have ``willingly helped us in the past are now saying, 
`You can't protect me. Why should I help you?' '' Senator Jay 
Rockefeller, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence 
Committee, puts it this way: ``The fact is, if we lose cooperation from 
these or other private companies, our national security will suffer.''
    When Congress reconvenes on Monday, Members of the House have a 
choice to make: They can empower the trial bar, or they can empower the 
intelligence community. They can help class-action trial lawyers sue for 
billions of dollars, or they can help our intelligence officials protect 
millions of lives. They can put our national security in the hands of 
plaintiffs' lawyers, or they can

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entrust it to the men and women of our Government who work day and night 
to keep us safe.
    As they make their choice, Members of Congress must never forget: 
Somewhere in the world, at this very moment, terrorists are planning the 
next attack on America. And to protect America from such attacks, we 
must protect our telecommunications companies from abusive lawsuits.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 10 a.m. on February 22 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on February 23. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
February 22 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. In his 
address, the President referred to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of 
Liberia. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of this address.