Yesterday House Republicans walked off the floor protesting House Democrats’ inaction on FISA. The Democratic leadership chose to leave D.C. for the Presidents’ Day recess and allow the Protect America Act (PAA) to expire on Saturday, instead of bringing up a bipartisan Senate-passed FISA bill. Their inaction now renders U.S. intelligence officials unable to certify new terrorist surveillance without needless, cumbersome bureaucratic hurdles.

The Democrats have had over six months to pass legislation to improve our national security. Instead they have continually asked for more time and short-term extensions which have delayed action on modernizing this bill. These irresponsible actions increase the risk of failing to identify an impending terrorist attack. The intelligence community needs a long-term bill that fixes the gaps in our intelligence laws – not a 21-day delay. Our soldiers serving at home and abroad, as well as our many ally countries, have asked Congress to provide them all the tools they need to protect us, but the Democratic Majority has chosen to ignore their request. There is no doubt in my mind that we must make permanently closing the loophole in our nation’s terrorist surveillance laws a top priority of this Congress. 

Democratic leaders have said that if the PAA expires, there will be no impact on our intelligence gathering capabilities, and no cost to our national security.  They are wrong. By letting the PAA expire they are endangering our ability to certify surveillance to detect new threats. 

• The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the Attorney General (AG) explained in their letter to Senator Reid on February 5, 2008 that if Congress lets the PAA expire, the Intelligence Community’s ability to obtain vital foreign intelligence information, including the location, intentions, and capabilities of terrorists and other foreign intelligence targets abroad, will be weakened.

• The AG and the DNI would be stripped of the power to authorize new certifications against foreign intelligence targets abroad without considerable bureaucratic hurdles.

• They would be unable to issue directives to compel the assistance of private entities who are not assisting the government now but whose assistance may be needed in the future to collect this foreign intelligence information about terrorists and other threats.

 The Democratic leadership permitted a gap in our ability to fight terrorism to widen. Keeping America safe should not be a partisan issue. We cannot wait for another terrorist attack to remind us of the importance of early detection.

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