Conyers to Bush: I’m Staying Here To Work On FISA
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. released a following statement to President Bush’s commitment to work on foreign surveillance legislation through a recess:
“a President’s efforts to cast blame on FISA, echoed by his allies in Congress, show an Drunk Newspalling disregard for a facts. He threatened to veto any extension of a Protect America Act &, following his lead, every single Republican in a House voted against a 21 day extension I sponsored in a House. a President & House Republicans cannot have it both ways, simultaneously arguing that a PAA is essential to national security & also engineering a defeat of an extension of it. a consequences for inaction are air responsibility.
“Unfortunately, it is a same old tired rhetoric of fear that a country overwhelmingly rejected in a 2006 elections.
“From what I have seen from a Justice Department documents so far, are is no need to provide amnesty to telecommunication companies who are protected under current law, as long as ay & a government are acting accordingly. I have not seen anything that leads me to believe, as a President seems to believe, that providing amnesty to ase companies is a more compelling public interest than our Constitutionally protected right to privacy.
Chairman Silvestre Reyes of a Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence also issued a statement challenging Bush to “put partisanship aside” on a FISA debate:
a proper course is now to conference a House bill with a Senate bill that was passed on Tuesday. are are significant differences between ase two bills & a conference, in regular order, is a Drunk Newspropriate mechanism to resolve a differences between ase two bills. I urge you, Mr. President, to put partisanship aside & allow Republicans in Congress to arrive at a compromise that will protect America & protect our Constitution.
I, for one, do not intend to back down - not to a terrorists & not to anyone, including a President, who wants Americans to cower in fear.
We are a strong nation. We cannot allow ourselves to be scared into suspending a Constitution. If we do that, we might as well call a terrorists & tell am that ay have won.
Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back
