Judiciary Completes Markup of FISA Revisions

House Judiciary Passes RESTORE Act to Implement FISA Revisions

(Washington, DC)- Today, the House Judiciary Committee passed the "RESTORE" Act - The Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007 (H.R. 3773). The bill seeks to update the hastily passed Protect America Act and implement safeguards to protect Americans' civil liberties while providing the tools needed to support U.S. intelligence gathering efforts. The bill was reported favorably out of the committe, in a vote of 20-14.

Upon passage and following President Bush's remarks about today's action, Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) said: "Those who oppose this bill are doing so for one reason: they are trying to convince Americans that those of us who support this legislation are somehow less committed to protecting this country from attack. They will pretend this bill doesn't meet our nation's security needs, despite the fact that it gives the Director of National Intelligence everything he said he needed.

"Americans are willing to make sacrifices to meet true national security imperatives, but they should not give up their rights unnecessarily, just to allow one political party to score points. This bill--the RESTORE Act--successfully provides the national security tools needed to go after terrorists and protects vital rights of Americans. The bill's opponents know this but find it more convenient to pretend otherwise."

The final bill passed with three amendments:

Jackson-Lee (TX): An amendment to clarify the bill's language to prevent "reverse targeting" by requiring the Administration to obtain a regular FISA warrant whenever a "significant purpose of an acquisition is to acquire the communications of a specific person reasonably believed to be located in the United States" rather than waiting until said person formally becomes a target.

Nadler (NY): An amendment to improve court oversight over the government's compliance with the FISA Court's orders by requiring the court to assess compliance with its orders as opposed to merely authorizing it to do so and by removing limitations on its review.

Scott (VA): An amendment to the bill's auditing and reporting requirements. The current standard is that acquisition must be with the "significant purpose" of gathering foreign intelligence. The amendment seeks to obtain information about what additional purposes for which the government may be collecting.