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Democrats Ask for Terrorist Surveillance Vote; Hoyer Doubts Companies Wrong to Help America
February 28, 2008 - House Democratic Leader Comes Close to Admitting Telecommunications Companies Did Nothing Wrong on Surveillance
House Members Ask Democratic Leadership for Vote on Surveillance Bill
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Warns Democrats About “Degraded” Intelligence Information Collection
Hoyer Questions Democratic Stance on Terrorist Surveillance
Just this week, House Democratic Leader Hoyer publicly questioned whether telecommunications companies were wrong to help the government conduct terrorist surveillance operations. “Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Hoyer said the secret documents he'd been allowed to see weren't ‘dispositive’ on the issue of whether the telephone companies were wrong.” [John Godfrey, “Rep Hoyer Comes Close To Saying Telcos Not Wrong In Wiretapping,” Dow Jones, 2/26/08]
“Hoyer then said ‘my view is not so much that the telephone companies may have done something ...’ But Hoyer abruptly ended that train of thought and changed directions, saying telephone companies are ‘in a very difficult position.’” [John Godfrey, “Rep Hoyer Comes Close To Saying Telcos Not Wrong In Wiretapping,” Dow Jones, 2/26/08]
House Democrats Ask Their Leadership for Vote on Terrorist Surveillance Reform
“About 20 ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats met Wednesday with Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and pressed for another vote before the spring recess, even if it means simply clearing the Senate-passed version of the bill — a course being pushed by the GOP.” [Keith Perine, “House Democratic Group Seeks Pre-Recess Vote on Surveillance Measure,” Congressional Quarterly, 2/28/08]
Breaking with Democratic leaders who are opposed to protecting companies that aided the country in the aftermath of terrorist attacks, Democratic Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin “said Blue Dogs would prefer to deal with the immunity question in some way … and said if House and Senate Democrats could not fashion a compromise on retroactive immunity, ‘then I believe we need to move the Senate-passed bill.’” [Keith Perine, “House Democratic Group Seeks Pre-Recess Vote on Surveillance Measure,” Congressional Quarterly, 2/28/08]
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Warns Democrats About “Degraded” Intelligence Collection
Despite assertions by Democratic leaders that intelligence collection will not be harmed by the delay in passage of FISA reform, “[e]arlier this month, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) issued a stern warning to his congressional colleagues: Support retroactive legal protections for the phone companies that participated in the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program or watch the nation’s intelligence become ‘degraded.’” [Manu Raju, “Rockefeller’s position on FISA?scrutinized,” The Hill, 02/27/08]
“Rockefeller has said he is trying to press Democrats to back the Senate’s approach on telecom immunity, but also that he is uncertain what the negotiations will yield and whether he would support any changes. He has warned Democrats that ‘they better be careful’ in what they wish for because the bill ‘has got to get signed’ into law by a president who has said he would veto any surveillance measure that does not have liability protections for the telecoms. ‘What people have to understand here is that the quality of the intelligence we are going to be receiving is going to be degraded. It is going to be degraded as the telecommunications companies lose interest.’” [Manu Raju, “Rockefeller’s position on FISA?scrutinized,” The Hill, 02/27/08]
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