House Stopped FISA Bill—Did your rep stand up to Bush? Call now!

Last Friday, thanks to your calls and visits, the House stopped a Senate/White House bill (S 2248) that would have weakened protections against Executive Branch spying by passing HR 3773, a substitute for the Senate FISA Amendments Act. Representatives who supported it saw through the White House's fear-mongering and recognized the White House's insistence on retroactive, blanket immunity for telecoms for what it is: a cover-up

This is the second time in two months that the House has stood up to the administration's fear-mongering for the cause of our civil liberties and Congress's role of overseeing the executive branch. Together we can turn that positive trend into a permanent habit!

See how your representative voted on HR 3773, a complete House substitute to the Senate FISA Amendments Act.

What to do: Members of Congress are now in their home districts, and they need our feedback before they return to Washington, DC, on March 31. We need to praise representatives who supported HR 3773, and remind those who voted against it that they work for their constituents, not for the White House. Do it in as many ways as you can:

Privately, through phone calls and visits to their offices.
Publicly, through public town hall meetings and letters to the editor.

Look up your representative's Washington, DC, office phone number or visit your rep's website to find his or her district office phone numbers. Ask the staff about your representative's upcoming town hall meetings, or join with allies and set up an in-district meeting with the representative. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper about your representative's vote and what it means.

Key points to make during your call or congressional meeting:

Congress's duty is to follow the Constitution and be a check on the Executive on behalf of its constituents, not a rubber stamp for the Executive Branch. The House did the right thing when it stopped the Senate FISA bill from becoming law, and I hope it is a promise of more to come.
Although HR 3773 has some flaws, it is vastly superior to the Senate bill by every measure: It does not grant retroactive, blanket immunity to the telecommunications companies, and it preserves FISA as the exclusive means for wiretapping in the US. Read about other features of the bill.
Vote NO on retroactive, blanket immunity for telecommunications companies. Allow the lawsuits to proceed so we can learn in open court what laws the administration violated and how Americans' privacy has been compromised. Private business already has immunity in good-faith situations; they shouldn't be given immunity for breaking the law. Neither the House-passed RESTORE Act nor the House's amended bill grants such immunity.
Vote NO for any bill that allows wiretapping on Americans without the warrants that the Fourth Amendment specifically requires for government searches.
Insist on audits of the program by the department Inspectors General, which the House-passed FISA Amendments Act would provide.
Make it clear that FISA must be the exclusive means for wiretapping in the US. The president is not above the law.

We must do our part to build the local support for our representatives that will encourage them to continue to stand up to the White House to protect the Bill of Rights! We, the people, must be the backbone elected representatives can lean into as their foundation.

Thank you for building a foundation for the Bill of Rights in your community!

Bill of Rights Defense Committee