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Congressman
Paul Ryan
Revising the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
In May 2006, the New York Times revealed that after September 11, 2001, the National Security Agency (NSA) had been conducting surveillance on foreign telephone communications routed through US communications networks. According to the Bush Administration, the purpose of these wiretaps was to establish an early warning system to detect and prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack on the homeland. Though the Administration agreed to terminate this controversial program in January of 2007, its inception underscored the importance of updating the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to allow U.S. intelligence officials to listen in on the communications of known foreign terrorists taking place on foreign soil.
It is important to note that for the past 28 years, our intelligence community has been able to successfully intercept overseas communications between foreign enemies. However, recent court rulings have held that the FISA law did not accommodate continuing this procedure, since the law was written before anyone could have imagined the integration of fiber optic technology in our modern communications network. Because the law did not account for today’s technology, it needed to be updated in order to continue the 28-year practice of intercepting foreign communications between foreign enemies.
I was pleased that House leadership agreed to make updating FISA a priority by passing S.1927, the Protect America Act. This bill met the temporary requirements of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Admiral Michael McConnell and effectively closed most of the loopholes in current FISA procedures. I voted in support of this bill, and it passed the House with bipartisan support by a vote of 227 to 183. This bill, which the President signed into law on August 5, 2007, took an important first step in ensuring America’s ability to accurately and effectively monitor those who would harm us.
However, because of the hurried manner in which House Leadership brought up the bill, the Protect America Act was written to provide only temporary reforms until Congress, the Administration, and the Intelligence Community could agree on more comprehensive and permanent FISA reform. After a series of fits and starts by House Leadership, a bipartisan consensus was finally reached on this issue in H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. With my support, this bill passed the House and was signed into law on July 10, 2008. In addition to receiving the support of more than two-thirds of the Senate, this bill is also supported by the Administration and the Director of National Intelligence. This legislation helps bring FISA laws up to date with current communications technology, and helps ensure U.S. intelligence officials are not stuck filing unnecessary paperwork while critical intelligence on the plans and intentions of known foreign terrorists passes them by.
I believe that it is important to clearly define any surveillance program to ensure the powers it authorizes are not abused. Intelligence collection is the only tool we have to discover the plans and intentions of foreign terrorist seeking to do harm to American citizens. I support H.R. 6304 because it will allow for more substantial judicial oversight of sensitive foreign surveillance activities and eliminate red tape that prevents our intelligence officials from getting the information they need to prevent attacks against the U.S. Bringing FISA standards in line with communications technology of the 21st century ensures the protection of Americans’ civil rights without unduly burdening our ability to keep informed of terrorist threats to our nation.
First Responder Funding.
Despite overall budget constraints, Congress has made funding for first responder programs a priority. On June 15, 2007, The House passed H.R. 2638, the FY2008 DHS Appropriations Act. The provisions of H.R. 2638 were included in the FY2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2008, providing DHS with $40.4 billion for FY2008. Specifically, the Omnibus includes:
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$4.2 billion in total for first responders – an increase of $668 million over FY2007;
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$820 million for high-density urban areas and $50 million for interoperable communications grants;
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$16 million for trucking industry security, $400 million for port security, and $400 million for transit security;
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$750 million for firefighter grants; and
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$400 million for state and local law enforcement terrorism prevention grants.
In addition, the FY2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act included language that weakened key provisions of the Secure Fence Act of 2006. As a proponent of border security and a supporter of the Secure Fence Act, I was deeply concerned with the inclusion of these provisions, which removed the requirement for double-layered fencing and specific construction zones and benchmarks already enacted into law. The Omnibus language also places overall fence design approval within several extraneous layers of bureaucracy, which is certain to delay timely construction benchmarks.
Operational control of our borders should be among the highest priorities of Congress. Every nation has the right to control entry and exit across its border. Porous borders leave us susceptible to the illegal crossing of terrorists, drug lords, and gang members, placing our homeland security in serious jeopardy. Because of the importance of this issue, I joined 104 other Members of Congress in signing a January 24, 2008, letter to Speaker Pelosi expressing concern with the inclusion of these provisions in FY2008 Omnibus Appropriations. I urge Congress to make border fence construction a top priority, and will continue working toward enforcement of our nation’s borders.
Additional
Information.
For more information on the homeland security, please refer to the following
web sites:
The
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland
The
House Committee on Homeland Security: http://hsc.house.gov
U.S.
Department of Homeland Security: http://www.dhs.gov |
