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White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/19/07 (Senate FISA Bill)
— Friday, October 19, 2007 — Q The White House has allowed Senator Rockefeller to see some key documents that he'd like to see. I'm wondering if, in general terms, you can describe those documents and perhaps lay out who else in Congress he may allow to see them. MS. PERINO: Well, I think it's premature to say who else might see them. The Senate Intelligence Committee and Senator Rockefeller and Senator's Bond's staff had showed a willingness to want to include in their legislation retroactive liability protection for companies that were alleged to have helped the United States in the days after 9/11. Because they were willing to do that, we were willing to show them some of the documents that they asked to see. The Senate FISA bill has many good components. We appreciate the serious work that has been done by Senator Rockefeller and Senator Bond. We have not seen the final product yet that came out of the markup. And so we need to see that before we comment further. We are disappointed that the bill includes a sunset provision. We don't think that that's necessary. And we have strong concerns about one of the amendments that came out of the markup yesterday -- the Wyden amendment. That is one that we would like to see taken out of the bill. We don't think that it was intended to be in there, and I think the staff is working on that. And so we'll let that process play out. But to the extent of anyone else being able to see the documents, I think that we'll wait and see to see who else is willing to include that provision in the bill. Q Dana, could you talk about the Wyden amendment a little bit? What specifically -- MS. PERINO: Well, we haven't seen the final language, but as we understand it, we would have concerns because we would not be able to accept it. The Chair and the Vice Chair, Senators Rockefeller and Bond, I understand recognize the problem with the language and are in agreement that it needs to be changed. It basically was, as I understand it, hastily drafted and agreed to, and it would, as an end result, take a step backwards beyond even before where we were when the original FISA bill was passed in 1978 in regards to targeting foreign intelligence overseas. Bond | Dana Perino | FISA | Press Briefing | Rockefeller | Senate | White House Press Corps | Wiretapping | Wyden Labels: Bond, Dana Perino, FISA, Press Briefing, Rockefeller, Senate, White House Press Corps, Wiretapping, Wyden
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:05 PM 
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