I received an e-mail this morning from John Boehner’s office regarding the FISA bill and thought it would be prudent to share the gist of it with my readers. Basically what is happening is the Senate passed a bipartisan bill with a vote of 68-29 about two weeks ago. Trail lawyers were unhappy with the immunity offered to telecom companies that had cooperated with the National Security Agency’s surveillance request. Nancy Pelosi, despite the urging of 21 of her fellow Democrats has refused to bring this bill for a vote on the House floor. Here is a video from the Freedom Project:

Those on the far left claim that our intelligence capabilities have not diminished due to the expiration of this bill. If that were true, then ask yourself why the bill was written in the first place? The FISA amendment was a necessity due to poor rulings by the judiciary which declared that all communications entering the United States receive 4th amendment protection. Contrary to popular belief, this amendment had nothing to do with spying on American citizens.

Back in October I wrote about the FISA “reform” bill offered by Democrats, and the counter amendment offered by Republicans:

Republicans complained that the Democrats’ FISA “reform” bill (called the RESTORE Act of 2007) would prohibit timely surveillance of terror groups by requiring the intelligence community to obtain a FISA court order to listen to terrorist communications.

House Republicans offered a motion to fix the bill. They wanted to make it clear that the intelligence community could conduct surveillance on Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda, or any other foreign terrorist organization without waiting for a FISA court to issue a warrant every time.

That would have gutted the Democrats’ bill, which said intelligence officials would have to obtain a FISA court order to listen to foreign terror suspects, including Osama bin Laden, who operate overseas but who may have had contact with people in the U.S. or who may have called a U.S. number.

When it looked like Democrats would go along with the Republicans’ motion, Democratic leaders pulled their bill from consideration.

Similar to a child who takes his ball and goes home after losing a game, the Democratic leadership have stomped their feet and proclaimed they will no longer play with Republicans (at least not until they are sure they can win). Nancy Pelosi continues to prove her ineptitude as a congressional leader, refusing to even allow a vote on this bill which has bipartisan support.

Even the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), said recently on the Senate floor that unless Congress acts, “People have to understand around here that the quality of the intelligence that we’re going to be receiving is going to be degraded.”

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee warns Pelosi that the quality of our intelligence is going to be degraded without this amendment being passed, and Pelosi sits on her hands. It has become blatantly obvious that Pelosi and company are more interested in protecting the trial lawyers right to sue telecom companies then protecting Americans right to feel secure.

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