Bentz Releases Statement on FISA Reauthorization
WASHINGTON – Congressman Cliff Bentz (OR-02) released the following statement on FISA:
“Today, I joined 126 members of my Republican conference in voting for HR 7888, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing American FreedomAct. Although not perfect, it is necessary, and it contains 56 Republican changes to the existing FISA law which provide significant protections against abuse of Foreign Surveillance processes.
“I also voted for Andy Bigg’s warrant requirement amendment but unfortunately, that amendment failed (on a tie vote!). On the positive side, two other amendments I voted for did pass and both make the law more protective of American citizens. One of these was Chip Roy’s amendment which forces the FBI to report to congress on a quarterly basis, and which allows certain members of Congress to attend proceedings before FISA courts. Also, the term of the reauthorization contained in the bill has been reduced from five years to two years, thus providing us with an excellent opportunity to first observe how our changes to this law will work and then, if necessary to further improve this law hopefully with the help of a Republican President.
“Had this bill not passed, the probable alternative would have been a Senate bill which would not have included the Roy amendment, nor the Bigg’s warrant amendment, and, very probably, having a five and not two-year sunset.
“Allowing partial “extension,” surveillance activity on immediate irreversible open and ongoing court cases to continue, raising the possibility that the network operators might stop continuing to cooperate and leading to gaps in collecting intelligence, and delays any new investigation of potential targets. Some have suggested that FISA has been extended for a year, so why pass anything now? This suggestion that FISA has been extended is not true. There has been an “extension” made by the FISA court for one year of those cases now open but nothing NEW could be done until the law was reauthorized. But for this bill, the ability to initiate surveillance of foreign terrorists under FISA would have stopped on April 25th.”