FISA Amendments Act of 2008

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, on March 14th I voted in favor of H.R. 3773 which modernized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This bill successfully updated the law to accommodate the current day communications technology while at the same time providing the much-needed protection of the court in sanctioning the surveillance of Americans. Moreover, the bill was also remarkable for what it did not contain; it did not provide retroactive immunity for telephone companies who are defendants in pending lawsuits. These suits have been brought to uncover the full extent of the Administration's program to conduct unauthorized surveillance on Americans.

I am deeply troubled that the Senate does not have the votes to pass the House bill. The Senate instead passed its own bill, S. 2248, which was unacceptable to me from the outset because it reduced the role of the FISA Court to merely review the procedures for targeting surveillance subjects and minimizing the information collected. Moreover, the Senate bill established retroactive immunity for the phone companies that have been used to carry out the Administration's illicit surveillance program.

To be sure, the Senate bill is completely unacceptable. Majority Leader Hoyer worked tirelessly to improve upon the Senate bill to forge an acceptable compromise. The bill before us today, however, does not go far enough to include sufficient safeguards of court involvement in the surveillance of Americans. Moreover, it continues to provide retroactive immunity for those companies that carried out the Administration's unauthorized surveillance. Finally, it fails to hold the Administration accountable for its past illicit surveillance activities and its disregard of the Fourth Amendment protections of Americans. As a result, I must vote against this bill.

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