WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE ABOUT FISA
Five Things You Can Do About FISA - Write Your Representative
http://ga1.org/campaign/FISA_Representative_Letter
In August, Congress bowed to the Bush administration's pressure and hastily passed legislation extending the president's warrantless wiretapping powers before heading off for summer vacation. This law amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to give broader surveillance powers to the executive branch and limit the oversight of the judiciary and was set to expire at the end of January 2008. This fall, the House of Representatives passed a version of a bill that would permanently amend FISA. The RESTORE Act, as it was dubbed, attempted to achieve a better balance between civil liberties and national security, and it did not include retroactive immunity for telephone companies who cooperated with the Bush administration's illegal wiretapping program.
The Senate passed its own version of the bill in February, and, heeding President Bush's calls for amnesty for lawbreaking phone companies, it included a provision immunizing the companies from civil suits by Americans whose privacy was violated. Now, the White House is pressing the House of Representatives to pass the Senate's version and guarantee immunity—and the President has even gone so far as to say that he will veto any version of the bill that doesn't include telecom immunity.But leaders in the House have not caved to the White House's scare tactics. They let the Protect America Act expire without passing a new bill, and they continue fighting to protect the civil liberties of Americans.
Tell your Representative to hold fast against White House pressure and not be moved by the president’s scare tactics.
» READ ACTION ALERT: FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO ABOUT FISA
