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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Senate action on FISA legislation:
House may take up the Senate-passed bill, after the White House rejected the House Democratic proposed measure. Bush asking the House to stay in session until it passes it. More from the AP.A few weeks ago, I made a personal commitment to the Director of National Intelligence that I would lead the Senate to passage of a bill that would help protect America from terrorist attack by enhancing our intelligence community’s foreign intelligence collection capability.
Senate Democrats worked in good faith with the Director of National Intelligence to produce the Rockefeller-Levin bill that was tough on terrorists, provided much-need oversight of the Attorney General, and did not infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens. Rather than pass this bill, my Republican colleagues chose to rubberstamp a flawed Administration proposal that fails to provide the accountability needed in light of the Administration’s repeated past mismanagement of key tools in the war on terror.
This bill will sunset in six months. Over the course of the fall, I expect the Senate to work diligently on more permanent legislation that will better serve American national security interests and the American people.
Update: Statement from Senate Intelligence committee chairman Jay Rockefeller:
More from the NYT.We all agreed Congress needed to take immediate action in order to help keep the country safe, and the Senate did that tonight.
My opposition to the final bill was based on the fact that it did not include the privacy protections and safeguards American citizens deserve and expect.
We had the opportunity to pass a more careful bill that would have given the DNI the authority he requested, while also protecting the rights of U.S. citizens.
Instead, this bill undermines the FISA Court and concedes unprecedented authority to the Attorney General.
It does contain the six-month sunset that we insisted upon, and that gives us an immediate opportunity and responsibility to come back and strike the right balance.