Hoyer's Bad Bill

Daily Kos Staff

Friday June 20, 2008 · 8:14 AM PDT

2008/06/20 · 08:14

This is what his local news has to say on the FISA bill he engineered:

Steny Hoyer (D-MD-5th) was a key player in a bipartisan compromise announced today to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FISA Amendments Act, H.R. 6304, in part provides legal immunity to the nation's telecommunications companies who helped the federal government with a warrantless surveillance program, which in part gathers information about the phone records of American citizens.

According to a May 11, 2006 report by USA Today, "The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime." ...

Proponents of the surveillance program say it is in response to the attacks on 9/11 and necessary to combat terrorism. However, the Washington Post reported on Oct. 13, 2007 that former Qwest executive Joseph Nacchio said in court papers, "the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks."

Qwest is the one telecommunications company who reportedly refused to cooperate with the NSA on the grounds they believed doing so would have been illegal.

It's good to see that at least some reporters can get the story right.

Debate on the latest version of the Protect AT&T has begun. It's going to move fairly fast, with just an hour of debate. Conyers is leading the opposition.

Update: Glenn finds this gem of a new Fox poll showing that Republicans approve of Congress (23-64) more than Democrats do (18-71). That was before yesterday's capitulation announced.

Congratulations to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer for leading the Republican Congress.

Hoyer's Bad Bill

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