Walberg: Intelligence Gathering is Not a Political Issue

Press Release

U.S. Congressman Tim Walberg (R-MI) issued the following statement about today's political vote planned by House leaders on an intelligence bill that will ultimately hinder America's counterterrorism efforts. House leadership continues to refuse a vote on the bi-partisan, Senate passed update and extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

"Gathering intelligence to defend America's national security has never been and should never be a political issue," Walberg said. "On February 17, much-needed updates to the FISA Act expired, and our military and intelligence officials need these tools to protect American citizens from terrorist threats. We need the foreign intelligence surveillance law passed so America's intelligence community can monitor al-Qaida and other terrorist networks without getting permission to listen to foreign terrorists plotting on foreign lands."

The bi-partisan FISA bill passed the Senate on February 12 in a 68-29 vote. In the following 28 days, House leadership has allowed about 60 other House votes to be held, including a vote to increase taxes on American gas and oil production. However, during that time, not a single vote on intelligence gathering has occurred.

Tonight's vote is on an intelligence bill that is filled with wasteful earmarks, including $23 million for a National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) in the Pennsylvania district of Rep. John Murtha. Even one of the past heads of the NDIC said that he recognized that a lot of reports from the NDIC were "awful, poorly written, poorly researched, and, in some cases, wrong."

The bill also diverts funding from critical human intelligence gathering to studies on the "national security" impact of cloud patterns.

"Our military and intelligence officials need the tools to protect American citizens from terrorist threats. American military and intelligence officials need to be able to monitor, without delay, calls of suspected and known foreign terrorists in foreign countries. We must not prevent our intelligence community from being able to monitor Osama bin Laden's phone calls," Walberg said.

BACKGROUND:

- Support for the Senate passed, bi-partisan FISA legislation is growing:

A former CIA Official and Adviser to Sen. Barack Obama Supports the Senate FISA Bill: In an interview published by National Journal Magazine on Friday, John Brennan, a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama and former CIA official who once served as head of the National Counterterrorism Center, said, "There is this great debate over whether or not the telecom companies should in fact be given immunity for their agreement to provide support and cooperate with the government after 9/11. I do believe strongly that they should be granted that immunity, because they were told to do so by the appropriate authorities that were operating in a legal context, and so I think that's important. And I know people are concerned about that, but I do believe that's the right thing to do. I do believe the Senate version of the FISA bill addresses the issues appropriately."

A bi-partisan group of 25 State Attorneys General wrote a letter to House leaders urging passage of the bipartisan Senate bill: "Passing S. 2248 would ensure our intelligence experts are once again able to conduct real-time surveillance. … As Attorneys General, we are our states' chief law enforcement officials and therefore responsible for taking whatever action is necessary to keep our citizens safe. With S. 2248 still pending in the House of Representatives, our national security is in jeopardy. We therefore urge the House of Representatives to schedule a vote and pass the FISA Amendments Act of 2007."

Glenn Sulmasy, a Harvard University national security expert, said updated FISA legislation "has allowed the United States to close a significant intelligence gap by enabling intelligence professionals to collect, without a court order, foreign intelligence on targets located overseas."

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