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Improving Foreign Intelligence Surveillance to Defend the Nation and the Constitution Act of 2007

Date: Aug. 3, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Technology and Communication


IMPROVING FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE TO DEFEND THE NATION AND THE CONSTITUTION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - August 03, 2007)

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Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

There really is a lot of common ground in this debate. My friends on the minority side of the aisle want to make sure that when one foreigner is talking to another on foreign soil, that doesn't need to go through a FISA court, and we agree.

The only real area of disagreement is when we make an effort to surveil a foreign suspect, and whether inadvertently or advertently we capture the conversations of Americans, should there be court supervision. If the programs expand and, in fact, we capture the conversations of thousands of Americans, should there be some court oversight of that?

I think on a bipartisan basis the Members of this body feel there should be. The courts should be involved, the Congress should be involved when we are talking about the surveillance of Americans on American soil, whether they were the target or the incidental effect of that surveillance. And I also think that if we got three Members from our side of the aisle and three Members from yours and sat down with the admiral, in about an hour, we could hammer this out.

We ought to do supervision when Americans are surveilled. This bill provides that, and I urge its passage.

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