Sen. Feingold: It's Not Just About Immunity

[ProSense]

It's Not Just About Immunity

by Senator Russ Feingold

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But immunity is only one of the very serious problems with the Intelligence Committee FISA bill. We all agree that when foreign terrorists are communicating with each other overseas, the U.S. government shouldn’t need a warrant to listen in. But both the so-called Protect America Act (PAA) – the law we passed last year - and the Intelligence Committee bill go far beyond addressing that issue. They grant unprecedented powers to the executive branch to engage in widespread surveillance involving Americans, with virtually no judicial involvement. There is a better alternative in the Senate, and that is the Judiciary Committee bill. It is vastly preferable not only because it does not contain immunity, but also because it provides for meaningful, independent judicial oversight of the new wiretapping authorities, and more protections for the communications of Americans that get swept up in these broad new surveillance powers. Here are some of the serious problems with the Intelligence Committee bill:

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[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[bdamomma]

2. these Senators better get their sh$t together cause the American

people are not going to stand for these illegal acts anymore.

[cal04]

3. It's Not Just About Immunity:updated

UPDATE

I’ve had a chance to read many of your comments and I’d like to address some of the common themes I’m seeing. I will be reading the entire comment thread tonight.

I don’t think it should come down to letting the PAA expire. There are some areas where FISA needs updating and these fixes can be done in a noncontroversial way that protects the rights of Americans at home. It's the overreaching we see in the Intel bill and the PAA that are the problem. Congress should be doing its job, which is to fix the PAA.

I was very disappointed when the Majority Leader chose to bring up the Intel FISA bill as the base bill rather than the Judiciary Committee bill. I, along with thirteen of my colleagues including all Democratic Senators who were or still are running for President, urged Senator Reid to make the Judiciary Committee bill the base bill. Unfortunately, our request was denied and we will now be forced to offer our changes on the floor, where our amendments are subject to Republican filibusters.

I am not totally opposed to the idea of a one-month extension to give Congress time to fix the problems with the law. The Senate made a mistake when it rammed legislation through last summer just as it did when it rammed the Patriot Act through after 9/11. If a short term extension is necessary to give us the time to make necessary changes, I'd consider it. It’s not very helpful to be talking about a long term extension of this law, we should be focused on trying to fix it now.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/17/104227/863/70/438259