Intelligence Committee Member has spear-headed FISA Reform
Washington, D.C. - Rep. Heather Wilson says the U.S. House of Representatives took a big and important step to keeping America safe by passing important updates to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The changes passed today after months of work will allow U.S. intelligence agencies to listen to foreign persons in foreign countries. The law will continue to require a warrant to target a person in the United States.
Wilson says the changes are long over due and are critical to providing the U.S. the intelligence to keep America safe and prevent terrorist attacks. Wilson says FISA was never intended to require warrants to listen to foreigners in foreign countries. Changes in technology have impacted the way the current law must be implemented. This bill fixes that problem, bringing the law back to its original intent: protecting the civil liberties of Americans.
"This is something that we've been trying to get addressed since April, since the Director of National Intelligence came to this Congress and told us we need to fix the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act," Wilson said today. "There are things that we should be listening to that we are not listening to, that we are missing, and it is hurting the security of this country. Intelligence is the first line of defense in the war on terror. If we can listen to what they're saying we can stop them before they attack. This temporary fix was months in the making and is the right thing to do."
The legislation the House passed tonight originated in the Senate. Wilson has worked for months in the U.S. House to change FISA to reflect modern communications technology.
The Director of National Intelligence sent a letter on Friday, July 27th, to Congressional leaders requesting Congressional action to fix gaps in FISA before the August recess. Director Michael McConnell's request "would make clear that court orders are not necessary to effectively collect foreign intelligence about foreign targets overseas."
"The DNI requested Congressional action on this in April because it is an issue of homeland security... This is not about politics; it is about ensuring that we give our security officials the tools they need to help protect our country from future terrorist attacks," said McConnell.
"We want to make sure that we don't have counterterrorism analysts who are very valuable, highly trained people, experts in language and regions and organizations, spending their time developing probable cause statements for foreigners in foreign countries," says Wilson. "Speed matters. It matters in a war on terrorism where terrorists are using our communication networks in order to try to kill us. Fixing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before the house adjourned for the August recess was vital, and I'm glad that we've finally done it." |