Stakeout with Sen. McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Min. Leader; Rep. Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Leader; Rep. Blunt (R-MO), Republican Whip; and Sen. Kyl (R-AZ), Republican Whip, Following Meeting with President Bush on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Statement

Stakeout with Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader; Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Leader; Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Republican Whip; and Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Republican Whip, Following a Meeting with President Bush on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Copyright ©2008 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.

SEN. MCCONNELL: We just had an opportunity to meet with the president about the crisis we have with regard to protecting the American people with the decision by the leaders in the House not to take up and pass the bipartisan Protect America Act that secured 68 votes in the Senate. Clearly the problem here is a majority of the Democrats in the House would rather see companies in court than they would terrorists in jail. What drives this issue, it strikes us, is the allegiance that the majority of the Democrats have with the plaintiffs' bar, the trial lawyers, and their opportunity to sue.

Why is that significant? The companies have a couple of scores of lawsuits filed against them as a result of their answering the call of our government to step forward in the wake of 9/11 to help protect America. That's not fair to them. And more important than that -- leaving aside their interests, which might put them out of business, which certainly wouldn't serve our purpose because then we wouldn't be able to monitor anybody -- we have a serious problem here with being able to continue to protect the homeland. We need this capability in order to prevent terrorist attacks.

So just summing it up, we think it's a lot more important to protect the country than it is to protect the trial bar.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Q Is it true that the authorization -- if a new terrorist group were identified today, for instance, aren't you authorized to follow them under the current bill for a year?

SEN. MCCONNELL: I don't think that's the case.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Q (Off mike) --

SEN. MCCONNELL: The companies have been waiting for six months for retroactive liability. They're under pressure from their directors, pressure from their shareholders, and you're jeopardizing the entire existence of the company by continuing to do this.

So as everybody has pointed out, they are voluntarily responding to the requests of our government to help, but they can't based on their fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders squander the whole company over this. So an extension is not adequate. We need to fix the problem, and the Senate-passed bill fixes the problem. As everybody has said, there's a bipartisan majority in the House to take up and pass the Senate bill. Extending current law doesn't get the job done.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source