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Politics

: The Gavel

Chairman Conyers: ?I?m Staying Here to Work on FISA?

By Jesse Lee

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From the Judiciary Committee:

Conyers: I’m Staying Here to Work on FISA

(Washington, DC)- House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. released the following statement to President Bush’s commitment to work on foreign surveillance legislation through the recess:

“The President?s efforts to cast blame on FISA, echoed by his allies in Congress, show an appalling disregard for the facts. He threatened to veto any extension of the Protect America Act and, following his lead, every single Republican in the House voted against the 21 day extension I sponsored in the House. The President and House Republicans cannot have it both ways, simultaneously arguing that the PAA is essential to national security and also engineering the defeat of an extension of it. The consequences for inaction are their responsibility.

?Unfortunately, it is the same old tired rhetoric of fear that the country overwhelmingly rejected in the 2006 elections.

“From what I have seen from the Justice Department documents so far, there is no need to provide amnesty to telecommunication companies who are protected under current law, as long as they and the government are acting accordingly. I have not seen anything that leads me to believe, as the President seems to believe, that providing amnesty to these companies is a more compelling public interest than our Constitutionally protected right to privacy. We must maintain our civil liberties and give the government the tools it needs to collect intelligence information, but I do not believe telecom amnesty is necessary in order to accomplish that goal.

“I have told my colleagues in the House that I am committed to working through this recess and will be discussing this legislation with Chairman Reyes and Senators Leahy and Rockefeller. I appreciate the President’s dedication to seeing this through and hope that he will join me in putting Americans before corporate interests.”

Chairman Conyers and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, spoke against telecom amnesty yesterday during debate on the 21 day extension:

Rep. Conyers: “Amd so Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that we put into the record at this point CNN.com news, ‘Phone Companies Cut FBI Wiretaps Due to Unpaid Bills.’ A lot’s been said about what some call ‘patriotic phone companies.’ Are these the same companies that cut off the FBI FISA wiretaps because the FBI hadn’t paid its phone bill? This is breaking news. I ask unanimous consent that we examine this issue and that we include it in the ones in the 21-day period.”

Rep. Nadler: “We have been told if we pass telecom immunity and if we fail to control abuse of the state secrets privilege that has been abused by the administration to prevent the courts of the congress from reviewing what they have done, there will be no mechanisms in the courts or in congress to know, let alone to control, what the executive is doing. the separation of powers established by the constitution to protect our liberties will have been destroyed. that where lies the slow death of liberty. It must not be permitted. We’ve been told by this administration, ‘trust us.’ I’m not in a very trusting mood these days.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 14, 2008 (boomark / email).