FISA Amendments Act of 2008

Floor Speech

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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill. I appreciate that some improvements have made been made to title I of the bill, but even these improvements are undercut by the scheme in title II that means there will be no accountability and perhaps no adherence to the provisions of title I.

I cannot support the legislation's deeply flawed provisions relating to the issue of immunity for telecommunications companies. These provisions turn the judiciary into the administration's rubber stamp. The review provided in this bill is an empty formality that will lead to a preordained conclusion, dismissing all cases with no examination on their merits.

Under this bill, the courts are not allowed to ask whether the conduct of the corporations who assisted was in fact legal. They may only note that the administration says that it was legal. In other words, the decision on the ultimate question of legality, a decision the Constitution dedicates to the judiciary, will instead be made by the executive branch with the judiciary acting as a rubber stamp. It turns the process of judicial review into a joke and denigrates this supposedly independent and coequal branch of government.

It's all the more aggravating because immunity already exists in the law under 18 U.S.C., section 2511. It provides that telecommunications companies are immune from suit if the company has been provided with a court order or a certification by the Attorney General, in writing, that the order has been obtained or is unnecessary.

I cannot support this.

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