KENNEDY RESPONDS TO PRESIDENT’S REMARKS ON FISA
WASHINGTON, DC—Senator Edward M. Kennedy released the following statement in response to President Bush’s remarks on FISA this morning.
“Once again, the President continues to try to bully the Congress and mislead the American people on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He refuses to accept that under our system of government, neither the President nor the telecommunications companies gets to decide which laws to follow and which to ignore.
The President wants Congress to pretend that his administration did not conduct a massive, illegal, domestic warrantless surveillance program that was one of the most outrageous abuses of executive power in our nation’s history. Rather than accuse Congress of playing politics, the President should stop playing politics with our national security. He is the one who has repeatedly blocked extension of the law, insisting that the phone companies must be protected, even though he claims that American lives are at risk.
President Bush could not be clearer: his number one priority is that Congress sweep illegal his administration’s activity under the rug. Congress must reject this outrageous demand.”
