Carter Stongly Urges House to Pass Critical Intelligence Bill

Press Release

CARTER STONGLY URGES HOUSE TO PASS CRITICAL INTELLIGENCE BILL

U.S. Congressman John Carter (TX-31), House Republican Conference Secretary, today called on Democrat leaders to bring the bipartisan Senate Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to an immediate vote on the House floor. Carter stressed that any further delay to fix the FISA loopholes that hamstring our intelligence community from spying on terrorists will put the security of our nation at great risk.

"For six months Democratic leadership in the House has refused to discuss and enact long-term meaningful reforms to FISA," Congressman Carter said. "Now, with only two days until its expiration, the Democrats are seeking another extension to postpone the work that should have been completed months ago. Permanently closing loopholes in the FISA law will allow our intelligence community to monitor and track terrorists like Osama Bin Laden who are determined to destroy our country."

Attorney General Greg Abbott along with 20 additional Attorney Generals nationwide sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid and Senate Minority Leader McConnell urging them to include immunity provisions for telecommunications companies that help their government identify the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

In the bipartisan letter, Abbot and other Attorneys General said, "Protecting carriers from this unprecedented legal exposure is essential to domestic and national security. State, local and federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies rely heavily on timely and responsive assistance from communications providers and other private parties; indeed, this assistance is utterly essential to the agencies' functions. If carriers and other private parties run the risk of facing massive litigation every time they assist the government or law enforcement, they will lack incentives to cooperate, with potentially devastating consequences for public safety."

These immunity provisions were included in the bipartisan Senate bill that passed yesterday. Unfortunately, House Democrats are postponing the vote in attempt to eliminate immunity provisions, which would expose companies to politically motivated lawsuits when they cooperate with the government to identify terrorists abroad.

"We must give our intelligence community the tools they need to keep Americans safe. The last thing we need to do is create more red tape and hoops for our intelligence community to jump through," Carter continued. "The security of our nation cannot be put on the backburner any longer. This work must be done now."

In August 2007, Congress passed the Protect America Act which provided a six month closure of loopholes in the 1978 FISA law. President Bush and Republicans in the House of Representatives have said they will reject any attempts by Democrats to further postpone permanently enacting reforms.

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