November 18, 2007

WASHINGTON-On Thursday, November 15 Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA)
voted for the passage of the Responsible Electronic Surveillance that
is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007, the "RESTORE
Act" ( H.R. 3773). The bill provides the U.S. Intelligence Community
with effective tools to conduct surveillance of foreign targets
outside the United States but restores the Constitutional checks and
balances that were not contained in the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) legislation passed by Congress in August.  --
"Though I believe the recent FISA bill had the intention of protecting
this nation, instead it impeded upon our very liberties and freedoms,"
said Congressman Sestak.  "The previous bill gave far too much
unchecked power to the Executive Branch, to both the Attorney General
and President Bush.  I am deeply committed to increasing our national
security and utilizing any tools we have to protect our homeland and
our engagements abroad.  However, as a Congressman, one of my sworn
oaths is to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States -
a model of liberty and a beacon of freedom.  This new legislation will
improve our intelligence gathering capabilities while safeguarding the
liberties that make this nation admired all over the world."

The FISA court was created in 1978 to allow the intelligence community
to listen in on foreign communications - such as phone calls - while
protecting Americans' privacy.  It was needed because there were
concerns at the time that our intelligence gathering agencies were
listening to Americans' conversations without cause.  The point of the
court is that the Attorney General would need to get permission from
the FISA court to listen in on calls made from outside the country to
someone inside America that is suspected of posing threats.  The law
currently allows the Attorney General to listen-in for 72 hours before
going to the FISA court for a warrant - in an emergency - so that
coming to the court will not interfere with timely surveillance on
terrorist activity.  In short, an intelligence agency can listen for
three days, in an emergency, and then go get a warrant while
continuing its investigation.  The RESTORE Act does not change this
aspect of our surveillance program in any way.

The RESTORE Act clarifies that FISA is the exclusive means to conduct
electronic surveillance of Americans for the purpose of foreign
intelligence collection. It clarifies that no court warrant is
required to intercept communications of non-United States persons when
both ends of the communication are outside the United States, but
requires an individualized court warrant from the FISA Court when
targeting Americans in the United States.

The legislation also provides new authorities for surveillance of
foreign targets outside the United States, while restoring certain
checks and balances that were present in previous legislation to
protect civil liberties. Specifically, the RESTORE Act establishes
procedures to create a new program of court authorized targeting of
non-U.S. persons outside the United States, when one of the ends of
communication is within the United States. It grants the Attorney
General and Director of National Intelligence authority to apply to
the FISA Court for a single order to conduct surveillance of multiple
foreign targets for up to one year, but restores critical checks and
balances that are currently absent under the Protect America Act, the
Administration's FISA Bill.

These safeguards include:

Court Review of Targeting Procedures, where the FISA Court must review
targeting procedures on a quarterly basis to ensure that they are
reasonably designed to protect Americans and target only people
outside the United States (and, if in the United States, that
authority has been obtained).

Court Review of Minimization Procedures, where the FISA Court must
review to protect minimization procedures on a quarterly basis to
protect data collected from Americans. Minimization refers to what the
government does with information that they collect on people in the
United States when they get that information incidentally while
tapping someone purportedly outside of the United States (so for
example, if a U.S. citizen name and other information about him/her
inadvertently is obtained, that information is removed).

Court Review of Compliance with Guidelines on a quarterly basis to
ensure that when the government seeks to conduct electronic
surveillance of Americans, the government obtains traditional
individualized warrants from the FISA Court.

The RESTORE Act will also limit the authority of the Intelligence
community to conduct surveillance from a broad definition related to
"foreign affairs," allowing surveillance dealing with threats facing
the United States from terrorism, espionage, sabotage, and clandestine
intelligence activities, as well as to correct information related to
the national defense or security of the United States.

The bill requires audits by the Justice Department Inspector General
to be provided to the FISA Court and to Congress every 120 days on
communications collected under this authority and the number of U.S.
persons identified in intelligence reports disseminated pursuant to
this collection. It also requires semi-annual audits to Congress of
the President's Surveillance Program and other warrantless
surveillance programs in an unclassified form with a classified annex,
and requires the President to brief Congress on such programs within
seven days of the law's enactment.

The bill will also add funding for training, personnel and technology
resources at Department of Justice (DOJ), National Security Agency
(NSA) and the FISA Court to speed the FISA process and to ensure that
audits can be conducted expeditiously.

The bill also does the following:

* Ensures that nothing in the bill inhibits lawful surveillance for
the purpose of protecting the nation and the troops from threats posed
by Osama Bin Laden and Weapons of Mass Destruction

* Mandates that the Executive Branch record every instance in which
the identity of a U.S. person whose communication was acquired by the
intelligence community is disseminated within the Executive Branch and
that it submit an annual report to Congress on such dissemination.

* Reiterates the exclusivity of FISA by including the House-passed
bipartisan language stating that FISA is the exclusive means to
conduct electronic surveillance of Americans for the purpose of
foreign intelligence collection.

* Provides no retroactive immunity. While the Administration has not
provided Congress with documents on the specifics of the President's
warrantless surveillance program, the bill does provide immunity for
those complying with court orders issued pursuant to this authority.

"As Director of the Navy's anti-terrorism unit after 9/11, I saw the
value of data-mining facilitated by proper eavesdropping.  However, I
also understand the FISA system and its role in the proper balance of
civil liberties with national security needs.  This bill protects both
the American people and their civil liberties as written in our
Constitution," added the Congressman.