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| ABQ Journal: Wilson up Front in GOP Protest |
February 21, 2008 |
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Watch this GOP Conference video about the
on-going FISA debate in Congress. | By Michael Coleman
Of the Albuquerque Journal
Republicans walked out of the U.S. House in a huff Thursday in part because the Democratic leadership refused to bring the Protect America Act to a vote and make it permanent.
Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., a member of the House intelligence committee and a staunch advocate for the legislation, was near the front of the protest line.
The act passed with a six-month lifespan last year, but it expired Friday. It allowed intelligence officials to intercept phone calls and e-mails from foreigners without a warrant even if their communication was routed through the United States.
Republicans also want retroactive legal immunity for telecommunications companies that helped the government spy on suspects after Sept. 11.
As House Republicans streamed out of the Capitol in protest Thursday morning, Wilson walked to the front of the pack and stood next to House Minority Leader John Boehner on the Capitol steps.
On Friday, she was still seething over what she described as an act of breathtaking irresponsibility by Democrats on matters of national security. A vote to extend the act by 15 days to allow time for a compromise failed to pass the House.
"It means that, at midnight tonight, we no longer have the authority to follow a new tip and listen to a foreigner in a foreign country who might be plotting against us," Wilson told me by phone on Friday.
Well, at least not without a warrant. The existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act still allows U.S. intelligence officials to wiretap phones, but they need a judge's permission.
Wilson argues that court approval can sometimes take a couple of days— precious time when a plot might be unfolding.
Existing wiretaps established under the six-month law will not expire for a year, even if the bill is not immediately renewed.
Democrats who oppose the legislation, including Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Rep. Tom Udall of New Mexico, contend that Republicans are creating a overly dramatic, sky-is-falling scenario, and that the legislation is unnecessarily invasive.
"This legislation not only fails to adequately protect the rights of Americans, but it also unnecessarily grants telecom companies retroactive immunity for assisting the government with an unlawful wiretapping program," Bingaman said last week. "Frankly, I believe we should be doing a better job protecting the liberties of Americans."
Wilson said foreigners don't deserve the same high standard of probable cause that the U.S. insists on before granting warrants to spy on American citizens suspected of crimes.
"The real problem is when you can't meet those high standards— and sometimes you can't," Wilson said. "It should never even have been required for foreigners in foreign countries who are trying to spy on us."
Wilson said she will keep urging House leaders to change the law permanently when Congress returns from its Presidents Day recess later this month.
"We have to do this," she said. "It's absolutely vital."
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