Senator Webb on FISA

From a press release sent out by Senator Jim Webb's (D-VA) office:

Senator Webb just sent the following letter to the Senate-House conferees, asking that they adopt provisions in the House FISA bill that enhance checks and balances and better protect Americans from Executive Branch overreach. As you know, Senators Webb, Feingold and Tester offered an amendment (#3979) to the Senate version of the bill which sought to add further safeguards against Executive Branch surveillance on innocent Americans.

His full letter below.

Dear Chairmen and Ranking Members:

I write to you in your roles as leaders on the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 (S.2248, H.R.3773). If and when you negotiate the conference report for this bill, I urge you to maintain many of the provisions in the House of Representatives’ bill, which provide greater protection for Americans’ constitutional rights while also allowing our nation to effectively fight terrorism.

On February 12, I voted for final passage of the Senate version of the FISA reform bill. However, the Senate-passed bill could have been improved in several ways. For example, Senators Feingold, Tester, and I introduced an amendment that would have added further safeguards against Executive Branch surveillance on innocent Americans. The full Senate did not pass that amendment. Moreover, I supported amendments that sought to limit full retroactive legal immunity for telephone companies and would have allowed consumers to move forward with existing and appropriate legal actions. These amendments also failed to pass the Senate.

By contrast, the House-passed FISA bill achieves, in my view, a better balance between fighting terrorism while protecting Americans from potential Executive Branch overreach. The House-passed FISA bill contains several appropriate provisions, including but not limited to: additional mechanisms for congressional oversight over Executive Branch surveillance programs, enhanced compliance monitoring by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, thorough auditing authorities given to Inspectors General, and a provision making clear that FISA is the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance can be conducted to gather foreign intelligence.

Moreover, the House-passed FISA bill does not grant full retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who aided Government surveillance, thereby allowing consumers to continue with their legal actions. As noted above, I similarly reject full immunity and prefer a middle-ground solution that would allow court cases to proceed under appropriate circumstances.

Again, I request that conferees adopt provisions in the conference report that more closely track the House-passed FISA bill, or that conferees craft compromise provisions that exceed the “checks and balances” protections and immunity provisions in the Senate-passed FISA bill.

Sincerely
Jim Webb
U.S. Senate

(Cross-posted)