For months and months we’ve detailed the problems with the Protect America Act and the FISA Amendments Act. These problems boil down to the following basic elements:
- The laws both replace the balance of power between the three branches of government as established in the Constitution with unchecked power in the Executive Branch
- The Protect America Act establishes programs of massive electronic spying against Americans without reasons or rules, and without supervision or restraint. The FISA Amendments Act expands that spying to physical searches of people’s homes and businesses – done without any search warrant or any other evidence for the belief that any crime has been committed or is even being planned.
- The FISA Amendments Act gives retroactive immunity to corporations that broke the law and violated privacy agreements in order to help George W. bush conduct forms of spying that they knew were illegal.
Both houses of Congress passed the Protect America Act in the middle of a Saturday night last summer, when they knew that most Americans would not be paying attention. The Protect America Act has, however, now expired. In the full light of winter, the Senate has passed a more permanent version of the law, the FISA Amendments Act, with all the nasty items you see above. Late last year, the House passed a similar bill, but without retroactive immunity, and with a few tweaks on the most extreme assaults upon the Constitution.
Now, if Congress were operating in its ordinary way, a conference committee containing both Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate, with consultation from the White House, would craft a compromise piece of legislation, which would then be voted upon again by the full membership of both the House and Senate.
Congress is not, however, operating in its ordinary way. Nothing in federal government seems to be operating in its ordinary way. Democrats in the House and Senate have attempted to convene a conference committee to craft a compromise, but Republicans from the House and Senate have refused to send members to participate. The White House has also refused to send anyone to consult on the committee’s work.
The Republicans have instead introduced another bill into the House, H.R.5440, entitled the FISA Amendments Act, to replace the legislation already passed by the House. The Republicans are attempting to circumvent the typical conference committee process in the interests of promoting the most extreme legislation possible.
So, Democratic representatives John Conyers and Silvestre Reyes have met with Democratic senators Jay Rockefeller and Patrick Leahy, without any Republicans present, to work on compromise FISA reform legislation themselves.
That makes for a strong political pose. Does it make for good policy? Reyes, Conyers, Leahy and Rockefeller have sent out a letter of complaint against the Republicans, stating,
“We continue to be disappointed in the failure of the Administration and Republican members of Congress to participate in these very important discussions, but we remain extremely committed to this process. Americans deserve a carefully thought out bill, and we will continue to work to put America’s security first.”
Statements like these make the Democrats in Congress look strong on national security. However, in order to achieve that robust appearance, those Democratic leaders are engaging in just the kind of rhetoric that has enabled domestic enemies of constitutional liberty to be so successful in their totalitarian agenda.
Democratic members of Congress should not be working to put America’s security first. They should be working to put our freedom first. That’s what the Constitution mandates, and what the Congressional oath of office accordingly requires.
Instead of trying to outdo the Republicans in their aggressive paranoid efforts to create a Big Brother security state, Democrats in Congress should put the Constitution first, and protect our rights from those who exaggerate the small terrorist threat to the United States.
If the Republicans don’t want to work with Leahy, Rockefeller, Reyes and Conyers, fine. The Democrats ought to accept their offer to let the FISA Amendments Act die.
