FISA Fight: Back to the Senate

While it's definitely been back-burnered, FISA and the determination of the Bush administration to get amnesty is still simmering away. The pressure is still out there to get the Rockefeller/Cheney bill passed. The primary reason it hasn't passed yet is because of all of you. You stood behind Chris Dodd back in December, and helped put enough pressure on the Senate to delay action. That bought enough time to strategize and to build public pressure to get us to where we are today--with a House that is still holding firm against amnesty. But the Senate is definitely feeling some heat from the other side.

Responding to that pressure, Judiciary Chairs Leahy and Conyers are asking for our help to push back.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a strong and balanced FISA bill, legislation that protects America's national security while defending civil liberties -- without granting retroactive immunity to phone companies. Retroactive immunity would abet the Bush-Cheney Administration's efforts to avoid accountability for its actions.

This was a tremendous accomplishment -- and would not have been possible without the hard work and support from engaged citizens like you. The fight for a fair FISA bill has been waged all across the country: in the halls of Congress, on progressive political blogs, in newspaper editorial pages, on the public airwaves, and around dinner tables and water coolers from coast-to-coast.

But there's still much work to do. Now that the House has passed a fair FISA bill, it's time to turn our attention back to the Senate -- and we hope you'll join us in urging our Senate colleagues to sign on to the strong FISA legislation the House passed just last month.

We've already seen the impact of grassroots activity on the FISA debate. Your emails, phone calls, blog posts, and letters-to-the-editor -- including more than 1,700 letters written in response to our call last month alone -- really do make a huge difference.

Now we need your help to make sure that our colleagues in the Senate know that the American people are watching -- and that they want a FISA bill that protects our national security, preserves our civil liberties, and refuses retroactive immunity to telecom companies.

First the Bush-Cheney Administration tried to bully the House into accepting its own deeply flawed FISA legislation. Then White House officials and Congressional Republicans refused to meet with us to hammer out a better bill. And then the President and his allies blocked our attempts to temporarily extend existing surveillance legislation -- incredibly blaming Democrats for their own efforts to let the legislation expire.

Despite all of this bullying, cajoling, and foot-dragging, we're proud that our House Democratic colleagues stood firm, refusing to water down the strong, balanced FISA bill that passed the House and is now on its way to the Senate.

Now we need your help to encourage our Democratic colleagues in the Senate to stand firm as well.

You know what to do. Use the form provided by Leahy and Conyers, and if you can, call and fax the Senators that we need to see the light. Tell them it's the House FISA bill or nothing.

Contact info below the fold.

Democrats

• Bayh [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Byrd [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Carper [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Clinton [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Feinstein [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Inouye [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Johnson [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Kohl [phone] [phone]
• Landrieu [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Lincoln [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• McCaskill [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Mikulski [phone] phone,  [phone] fax
• Nelson (FL) [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Nelson (NE) [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Obama [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Pryor [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Rockefeller, [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Salazar [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Stabenow [phone] phone, [phone] fax

Republicans (and other)

• Chambliss [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Coleman [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Collins [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Dole [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Graham [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Lieberman [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• McCain [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Smith [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Snowe [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Specter [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Sununu [phone] phone, [phone] fax
• Warner [phone] phone, [phone] fax