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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2008
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Contact: Zach Goldberg
202-225-5801 (office) |
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HOLT OPPOSES FISA AMENDMENTS LEGISLATION
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(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) today issued the following statement in opposition to the FISA Amendments Act.
When the debate over modernizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) began more than a year ago, I had hoped that we would craft a bill that would allow us to protect Americans in every way – from our foreign enemies and from an overly-intrusive federal government. We failed in that task last August when we passed the so-called "Protect America Act", but we seemed to recover the proper balance in November 2007 and again in March 2008 when this House passed two very good FISA reform bills.
Unfortunately, our negotiators bought into the flawed assumptions of the Bush Administration: that because we live in a dangerous world, we must now redefine the Fourth Amendment, and thus the fundamental relationship between our government and its people. Indeed, if this bill becomes law, it will perhaps be the only lasting legacy of the Bush-Cheney administration overhaul of national security policy: a Congressionally-blessed distortion of Congressional checks and balances.
This bill alters the basic protections of the Fourth Amendment. This is not an abstract point – it will mean real harm to real people. If this bill becomes law, I will not be able to look my constituents in the eye and tell them with complete assurance that our government cannot spy on them, without a warrant. It permits massive warrantless surveillance in the absence of any standard for defining how the communications of innocent Americans will be protected – a "fishing expedition" approach to intelligence collection that we know will not make Americans safer.
Its court review provisions are weak and narrowly defined. Some have suggested that some court review is better than no court review. That's only true if the judges’ hands aren't tied in the review process. They are in this bill.
Finally, this bill includes provisions that will make it impossible for American citizens to hold telecommunications companies accountable for being accomplices in the Bush-Cheney administration’s illegal surveillance program if they were. Under this bill, if the administration provides certifications to the court that the companies cooperated at the request of the President, the suits would be dismissed. The companies do not have to argue even that they considered whether the request was legal or necessary for public safety.
I regret that the House has chosen once again to grant the executive branch sweeping, unwarranted, and unconstitutional surveillance powers. It is a decision we are likely to rue, and soon, and I oppose this legislation.
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