The American Mind

Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Vito Fossella (R-NY) are trying to bypass the House Democratic leadership by organizing a discharge petition to bring the FISA modernization bill to the floor for a vote.

All that’s needed is a majority of House members to sign it. But since the Republicans are a minority they need some Democrats to put national security ahead of their leadership.

It’s important that this bill be passed. King and Fossella write,

Consider what’s at stake: Half of all the information we obtain on future attacks against our nation comes from electronic surveillance, according to National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, who warned that failure to pass the Senate bill will degrade all intercepts by two-thirds. We can’t expect intelligence officials to connect the dots when they have one arm tied behind their back collecting them.

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Our legislation gives intelligence officials the speed and agility they need (and have had since right after September 11) to quickly monitor foreign-to-foreign communications of terrorists without having to first obtain a court order. But it also protects civil liberties by empowering the FISA Court to review the procedures used to collect this information. And it still requires the government to get a warrant to wiretap any American.

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Unfortunately, intelligence officials are now forced to operate under laws written more than three decades ago — in an era before cell phones and PDAs. Instead of tracking new terrorist cases, they now waste critical hours fighting through red tape to file court papers trying to prove probable cause for a wiretap — a difficult task to do quickly when dealing with bits and pieces of information. And in an age of disposable cell phones and satellite communications, the terrorists will probably change their phone numbers several times before the court authorizes a wiretap.

It is likely we will see a return to the massive backlog of requests for surveillance like last summer, when intelligence officials had to essentially wait on line to get approval to eavesdrop on terrorists in Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan that were plotting deadly new attacks against innocent Americans.

Some House Democrats see the need to do something and met with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) about voting on something (subscription required) before the Easter recess:

About 20 “Blue Dog” Democrats met Wednesday with Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and pressed for another vote before the spring recess, even if it means simply clearing the Senate-passed version of the bill — a course being pushed by the GOP.

“We don’t want for inaction to become the controversy,” said Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., one of the leaders of the Blue Dog Coalition.

But there appears to be no consensus yet, even among the group, as to precisely which version of the bill (HR 3773) the House should vote on. The Senate version includes a controversial provision granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with warrantless government surveillance for more than five years after the Sept. 11 attacks. The House-passed version does not include such a provision. There are less contentious differences between the two versions as well.

Both versions — like a temporary surveillance law (PL 110-55) that lapsed Feb. 16 — would grant legal immunity going forward.

One idea floated at the Wednesday meeting and in ongoing House-Senate Democratic negotiations is to try to move a compromise measure that does not deal with retroactive immunity.

But Herseth Sandlin said Blue Dogs would prefer to deal with the immunity question in some way, perhaps through a proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to grant retroactive immunity to companies that could demonstrate to a special federal court they cooperated with the government in good faith.

Herseth Sandlin said if House and Senate Democrats could not fashion a compromise on retroactive immunity, “then I believe we need to move the Senate-passed bill.”

Hoyer signaled Feb. 26 that House Democratic leaders intend to bring legislation to the floor before the March recess in some form.

Why wait? There’s a bill waiting for a vote that would pass and be signed by the President. The longer House leaders wait the more difficult it will be for the military and intelligence agencies to monitor terrorists’ communications, making the U.S. less safe.

Now’s a good time to call your Representative and ask him or her to sign the King and Fossella discharge petition. The House of Representatives phone number is (202) 224-3121.

“A Big Bouquet for al Qaeda“