Over the last two days General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker have testified on Capitol Hill – yesterday to the Senate and today the House. It has been seven months since they were last testifying and to read my statement about their previous visit click here.

Over the last 12 months the surge has made significant strides. Violence levels have declined throughout much of Iraq, free elections have been held, police and military forces have been recruited and trained, and the Iraqi economy is growing nationally, provincially, and locally. Although it is vital that Iraq’s political leaders move more aggressively, the Government of Iraq has now met 12 out of the original 18 benchmarks set for it, including four out of the six key legislative benchmarks. General Petraeus said that the progress made thus far is “fragile and reversible.” I was not in office when the vote took place to go to war, but faced with the current circumstances on the ground in Iraq, I am deeply concerned that a precipitous withdraw would offer terrorists a well-situated safe haven, leave behind an unchecked Iran with nuclear ambitions, and pave the way for humanitarian disaster and genocide. 

I, like generations of Americans, was raised on the principle that you must finish what you started. Regardless of one’s opinion on how and why the United States became involved in Iraq, we must complete what we began. Helping give birth to democracy is not easy, but nothing worth having ever is. Countless men and women around the world have given their lives in its name because they simply want the opportunity to determine their own destiny. The people of Iraq are continuing to work to make this a reality for their country. As long as America’s soldiers on the ground in Iraq see this process moving forward, we must do all we can to ensure democracy’s success. Our allies stood by our side when our democracy was in its infancy, and we must not abandon the Iraqi people in the infancy of theirs.

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Today marks five years of dedication and sacrifice by our heroic men and women in uniform. Because of the perseverance of our troops, violence levels have significantly declined throughout much of Iraq, free elections have been held, police and military forces have been recruited and trained, and the Iraqi economy is growing nationally, provincially, and locally. And most importantly, our troops are coming home knowing that their efforts are leading to victory. Although it is vital that Iraq’s political leaders move more aggressively to reconcile the differences between the factions within their country, Iraqi leaders are slowly learning to govern and have passed several key pieces of legislation in recent months.

Over the past five years, I, like many Americans, have doubted the success of the initial planning and the reasoning behind many of the ongoing strategic decisions. However, I have never wavered on my dedication and commitment to our men and women proudly serving this country. Under the leadership of General David Petraeus, America’s armed forces have made significant strides in bringing stability to the region. While there is still much work to be done, his guidance has helped focus our military’s efforts on providing an environment where the Iraqi government, the Iraqi people, and the international diplomatic teams can work to build a stable, moderate, and free nation.

On this bittersweet anniversary, the most important thing that we must remember is the sacrifices made by our armed forces. We owe our troops and veterans our gratitude for continuing to keep us safe and free.

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The New York Post 

Mike Ramirez
March 4, 2008

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Yesterday, the House concluded its business for the week after renaming some post offices and passing a “No Energy Bill.” However, still missing from the House agenda was the bipartisan Senate-passed FISA bill. And even though House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has flip-flopped on his position on the importance of closing the terrorist loophole, Congress has still not taken up the FISA fix. 

 Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said two weeks ago, “There is no urgency. That claim is a claim made to stampede this House and the American people.” (Floor Remarks, 2/14/08)    However, yesterday he said, ”This is a very serious, important bill. It’s critical to the defense of our country.” (Floor Remarks, 2/28/08) While the Democrat Majority is busy trying to make up its mind, the safety of the American people is at risk. Letting the Protect America Act expire was a mistake and until the Senate-passed FISA bill is passed, Americans will not be protected. 

My friend and colleague Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) explained the seriousness of this when saying, “While you are reading this, somewhere in the world, a terrorist group is making fresh plans to attack the United States or our allies. And those charged with gathering information about their plans are barred from doing anything about it without needless and dangerous delays.  If this sounds dramatic, that’s because it is. Until midnight on Feb. 17, our nation’s intelligence officials were able to freely monitor foreign communications of suspected terrorists overseas ….  But today, they cannot – and they will not be able to until Congress returns to them all the tools they need to gain critical new surveillance information that could save American lives.” (“House Must Update Foreign Surveillance Act,” Cincinnati Enquirer Op-Ed, February 28, 2008)

It is imperative for our security that we provide our intelligence agencies with the tools they need to search out and find terrorists.  When the Democratic leadership makes up their mind and stops flip-flopping on the FISA bill, Americans will once again be secure in a world where terrorists seek the opportunity to destroy that safety.

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I thought you might be interested in reading what several journalist and intelligence experts say about the Democratic Leadership allowing our intelligence gathering to be compromised:

The Wall Street Journal: “What we have here is a remarkable display of the anti-antiterror minority at work.”  “[Silvestre] Reyes claims that existing wiretap orders can stay in place for a year. But that doesn’t account for new targets, which may require new kinds of telecom cooperation and thus a new court order. Mr. Reyes can make all the assertions he wants about immunity, but they are no defense against a lawsuit. For that matter, without a statute in place, even a renewed order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is likely to be challenged as illegitimate. A telecom CEO who cooperates without a court order is all but guaranteed to get not merely a wiretap lawsuit, but also a shareholder suit for putting the company at legal risk.”  (Editorial, “Pelosi’s Wiretap Offensive,” The Wall Street Journal, 2/19/08)·         “We asked one phone company executive what he’d do, after Friday’s expiration, in response to a government request for cooperation. His answer was blunt: ‘I’m not doing it.’”  “‘If I don’t have compulsion, I can’t get out of court [and those lawsuits]. . . . I’m not going to do something voluntarily.’ Having talked to telecom executives, we can tell you this view is well-nigh universal.”

The Washington Times: “Thanks to [Democratic Leaders], the House adjourned Thursday until Feb. 25 rather than act on legislation to strengthen the ability of U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor foreign terrorist telephone calls and e-mails under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.”  “Given the fact that 21 relatively moderate Blue Dog Democrats led by Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas have signed a letter to Mrs. Pelosi urging her to yield on FISA, the speaker realized that she was in danger of suffering yet another humiliating political defeat on the issue. So she pulled the bill from the floor and sent the House on vacation. … Thus far, Mrs. Pelosi and her friends have responded contemptuously to the security concerns expressed by National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell. The most critical question now is whether Mr. Ross and his fellow Blue Dogs can somehow persuade Mrs. Pelosi that pandering to the kook fringe on national security will damage her politically.”  (Editorial, “Pelosi’s Shameful Pandering,” The Washington Times, 2/18/08) “Delay In Congressional Action Deters Cooperation In Detecting Terrorism”The Weekly Standard’s William Kristol: “[F]or the House Democrats, sticking it to the phone companies – and to the Bush administration – seemed to outweigh erring on the side of safety in defending the country.”  “[T]he Democratic House leadership balked – particularly at the notion of protecting from lawsuits companies that had cooperated with the government in surveillance efforts after Sept. 11. Director McConnell repeatedly explained that such private-sector cooperation is critical to antiterror efforts, in surveillance and other areas, and that it requires the assurance of immunity. ‘Your country is at risk if we can’t get the private sector to help us, and that is atrophying all the time,’ he said.”  (William Kristol, Op-Ed, “Democrats Should Read Kipling,” The New York Times, 2/18/08)·         “When they say this is important for our national security, the Congress – to block this legislation I find pretty amazing.”  “I think it’s kind of unbelievable, frankly. It’s a judgment call. We don’t know. Not to give the administration the benefit of the doubt when they have career people, military people, intelligence people like Mike McConnell and Mike Hayden, and the attorney general, Mike Mukasey – I mean, these are not political hacks. These are not ideological people.”  (Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday,” 2/17/08)

The National Review Online’s Rich Lowry: “House leaders shrug and say that the essential authorities remain in place for another six months. This is a dodge.”  “House Democrats tell themselves they are striking a blow against the politics of fear. But only if we suffer another mass-casualty terror attack will a politics of untrammeled fear be unleashed on the land. Best to do all we can to avoid it, especially when it involves nonviolations of the nonrights of non-Americans.”  (Rich Lowry, Op-Ed, “Whose Politics Of Fear,” The National Review Online, 2/19/08) Columnist Robert Novak: “The recess by House Democrats amounts to a judgment that losing the generous support of trial lawyers, the Democratic Party’s most important financial base, would be more dangerous than losing the anti-terrorist issue to Republicans.”  “Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the phone companies for giving individuals’ personal information to intelligence agencies without a warrant. Mike McConnell, the nonpartisan director of national intelligence, says delay in congressional action deters cooperation in detecting terrorism.”  (Robert D. Novak, Op-Ed, “Why Torts Trumped Terrorism,” The Washington Post, 2/18/08)The National Review Online’s Andrew McCarthy: “Democrats who claim that people like McConnell are engaged in partisan fear-mongering are talking nonsense.”  “And as McConnell noted this morning, every day we don’t fix this problem, the problem – the investigative leads you don’t get, the connections you don’t make, the things you don’t learn but which you should know – metastasizes.  Intelligence is dynamic:  you can’t stop collecting for a day, a week, a month or more and then figure you are picking up right where you left off.  What you have lost tends to stay lost.”  (Andrew McCarthy, Op-Ed, “Dems Accuse Bush Administration Of Politicized Fear-Mongering On FISA,” The National Review Online, 2/17/08) The Washington Times’ Frank Gaffney: “While the House of Representatives is vacationing this week, terrorists are probably communicating about plots to kill Americans without fear that their plans will be intercepted by U.S. intelligence.”  “If one or more of those mortal plots are, as a result, succeed, we won’t need an independent commission to assign blame. The buck will stop squarely at the desk of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who refused to allow a vote on permanent renewal of the Protect America Act (PAA).”  (Frank J. Gaffney, Op-Ed, “Wrong Call On Telecoms,” The Washington Times, 2/19/08)

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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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Today the Department of Homeland Security announced that they will be defying Congress and begin enforcing passports at the U.S. land borders starting Jan. 31, 2008. 

 Although I firmly support any initiative to strengthen America’s seemingly porous borders, this change in policy places additional economic hurdles on communities that rely on international tourism. In a time of a potential recession, we should not be blocking billions of dollars in revenue for the U.S in trade and tourism.  In addition, this regulation only allows people six business days to apply and receive a passport. It is illogical and impractical to change this policy and only give a mere six business days to receive a passport. Besides the obvious passport backlogs this will cause, it will also force an already strapped American family more of their income to rush passports. 

I urge Secretary Chertoff and the Bush Administration to adhere to the legislation that I voted for last month which delayed the passport mandate until June 2009. We must allow our economy to rebound and not prohibit the needed economic growth we have with our Northern border.

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As many of you are aware, this morning Gov. Spitzer announced that he would be dropping his plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain New York State driver’s licenses. He said that the opposition is just too overwhelming to move forward. I am pleased to see that the Governor decided to put the safety of millions of citizens above granting privileges to those who entered this country illegally.

While I sat in the meeting with Governor Spitzer and the rest of the New York’s Congressional Delegation I began thinking about how significant it is that due to the public outcry against this fatally flawed plan, the Governor is going to drop his plan. It is a testament to the strength of our democracy when the people’s voice is heard so loud that it stops dangerous legislation.

In this post I would like to recognize and thank of all of the New Yorkers who called into my office and all of the county workers who made it known that they would not break the law for the governor. It is because of the public outcry, that this dangerous and potentially destructive plan will not go into effect in the state of New York. The citizens of New York can rest assured that their voices have been heard and their security has been ensured.

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The Democrat Majority: By the Numbers 

0 - Fiscal year 2008 spending bills signed into law  

$3.04 - Per gallon of gas and no energy bill to lower gas prices 

20 - Years since the last time it took this long to confirm an attorney general 

20 - Years since the last time not a single spending bill was sent to the president by this late date 

33 - States with operating budgets lower than the $9 billion in overspending contained in the Labor-HHS-Ed appropriations bill 

39 - Days into the 2008 fiscal year with no spending bills signed into law 

46 - Bills signed into law naming post offices and other federal properties 

52 -  Days since the nation had an attorney general 

53 -  Days until expiration of the research and development tax credit   53 - Days until 2008, and still no Alternative Minimum Tax patch 

57 - Political Iraq votes held in the House and Senate 

66 - Percent of foreign intelligence missed when court orders were required for surveillance, according to DNI Mike McConnell 

276 - Days since the president requested funding for troops, and still no action  312 - Days since the Alternative Minimum Tax “patch” expired 

$93.53 - Per gallon of crude oil, and no energy bill to lower gas prices 

$100,000 - Funding for Los Angeles Fashion District in House Transportation-HUD appropriations bill  $300,000 - Funding for San Francisco Exploratorium museum in Labor-HHS-Ed appropriations conference report 

$2 million - Funding cut from Department of Labor union boss watchdog office   

22 million - New smokers needed to pay for Democrat SCHIP plan 

$3 billion - Border security funding pulled from defense spending bill by Democrats  

$22 billion - Additional spending proposed by Democrats over the president’s budget request 

$220 billion - Additional spending over 10 years proposed by Democrats   $916 billion - Additional taxes proposed in the Democrats’ budget over 10 years 

$1.3 trillion - Additional taxes proposed by Democrats in AMT legislation over 10 years

To read more about the “Do Nothing” Congress read: Record Setting Congress

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