Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Floor Speech

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT -- (Senate - February 12, 2008)

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today the Senate will finish the bipartisan Rockefeller-Bond bill. This bill is the product of months of painstaking negotiations between Senate Republicans and Democrats and benefitted from the participation of intelligence experts in the executive branch.

The overwhelming bipartisan vote in the Intelligence Committee reflected the care, concern, and good faith that went into crafting the bill. The final vote was not 15 to 0, but it was 13 to 2, which around here is pretty close.

The Rockefeller-Bond bill contained the two main ingredients that are needed to sign this bill into law. It will allow intelligence professionals to do their jobs, and it will not allow trial lawyers to sue the telecommunications companies that may have participated and, according to the intelligence, acted in good faith to help protect our country.

A bill that does not satisfy these two requirements will not become law, nor should it. And, in fact, Mr. President, I know the Senator from Missouri, our ranking member, is going to make the point that all of these amendments need to be defeated if, in fact, we are going to get a signature on this bill. It will be the only way in the end to protect our country.

Last week was a great example of what we can accomplish when we work with each other instead of against each other. We were able to pass an economic growth package on an overwhelming bipartisan basis which the President will sign tomorrow.

We have another chance this week to put up a bipartisan win by passing the Rockefeller-Bond bill, a bill that is critical to protecting the homeland from attack and protecting our forces fighting overseas.

I am confident that with the help of friends on the other side of the aisle, we can work through the pending amendments, send it over to the House, and then send it on to the President for his signature this week.

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