Reps. Fossella, Smith & King Begin Circulating Discharge Petition to Force Vote on Bipartisan FISA Modernization Bill

Lawmakers Want to Bring Bipartisan Senate Bill to the Floor for a Vote

[Washington, DC] – Congressmen Vito Fossella, Lamar Smith and Peter King began circulating a discharge petition this morning to force a vote on the bipartisan Senate FISA modernization bill.

The lawmakers said they were taking the rare step of coordinating a discharge petition, which allows a bill to be brought to the floor for a vote without the consent of House leaders, to restore a key tool in the War on Terrorism. A total of 218 signatures are needed to require a vote on the bill. 
 
Fossella said, “House leaders shut down the ability of intelligence officials to quickly monitor the communications of terrorists overseas. We know that this law helped prevent attacks from occurring, and its expiration has prevented intelligence officials from getting all the information they need to keep us safe. The intelligence community must have every legal tool at its disposal to detect and disrupt terrorists before they can launch a new attack. When it comes to national security, Congress should work across party lines to protect our nation. We have no choice but to take this step to force House leaders to bring this bipartisan anti-terror bill to the floor for a vote.”

Smith, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, said, “Foreign surveillance is the most important tool our intelligence and law enforcement officials have to protect Americans from future terrorist attacks.  House Democrats have spent nearly a year putting liberal interest groups above the needs of our intelligence officials.  There is no excuse for the Democratic Majority’s refusal to bring this bill to the floor.  House Democrats say they want to strengthen national security; but they refuse to allow a vote on a bi-partisan bill that would pass.”

King, the Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said, “The war on terror is too important for Congress to play partisan games with FISA. We must give our intelligence professionals the tools they need to protect us, and we must provide legal protection to those Americans who step forward to protect us. This is why I have joined with Congressman Fossella in introducing the stronger Senate bill, which will better protect New York and our nation from the threat of Islamic terrorism.”

The FISA modernization bill is needed to allow intelligence officials to quickly monitor the communications of suspected terrorists overseas without first obtaining a warrant. A temporary fix of the FISA law, which was enacted in August 2007, expired in February and House leaders have since refused to bring a bill to the floor that would make these changes permanent.

The Senate passed a permanent FISA modernization bill in February by a vote of 68-29. Fossella, King and Smith, along with Rep. Pete Hoekstra, introduced the same bill in the House that same day. The lawmakers were required to wait 30 legislative days from the day they introduced the bill to begin circulating the discharge petition, as dictated by House rules.

On February 5, 2008 Director of National Intelligence McConnell wrote to Senator Christopher (Kit) Bond (R-MO) about the importance of reauthorizing and modernizing the FISA statute.  In the letter he outlined the types of information that our intelligence agencies have been able to obtain via FISA authorized activities and stated that “The IC [intelligence community] must be able to continue to collect information of this nature in order to stay ahead terrorist and other threats to the United States.”
 

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