Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5349, a 21-day extension of the existing FISA Act to provide Congress the time to work out the differences between the two Houses on this very important matter. It is a question of our Nation's security and it is a question of our Nation's values. We should not be stampeded into action when there is no need. This administration has the ability to monitor terrorists, and extending current law for 21 days will not remove that ability.

What this debate is really about is whether national security wiretapping should be subject to judicial and congressional oversight, as the bill that we passed last December, the RESTORE Act, provides and as traditional American values insist on, or whether the administration, any administration, can be trusted to police itself, whether American citizens' liberty should be subject to the unreviewable discretion of the Executive as the Protect America Act and the Senate-passed bill provide. 

Also at stake is the question of so-called telecom immunity. We know what they are asking. They are asking that the lawsuits against the telecommunications companies for participating in the warrantless surveillance program, allegedly in violation of the FISA law, be foreclosed.

Now there are only two possibilities. There are two narratives: Either the telecom companies nobly and patriotically assisted the administration against terrorism. That is one narrative. Or the telecom companies knowingly and criminally participated in a criminal conspiracy in violation of the law, aiding and abetting a lawless administration to violate Americans' liberties and privacy rights against the Constitution and against the FISA Act. I believe it is the second. But it's not up to me or up to anybody else here to decide that. That's why we have courts. Courts determine questions of law and fact. People are out there who believe their rights were violated. They've brought a lawsuit. Let the lawsuits continue. Let the courts decide whether the telecom companies acted properly or acted in violation of the law. It is not the job of Congress to foreclose that judgment.

We have been told: If we pass telecom immunity and if we fail to control abuse of the state secrets privilege that has been abused by the administration to prevent the courts or the Congress from reviewing what they have done, there will be no mechanism in the courts or in the Congress to know, let alone to control, what the Executive is doing. The separation of powers established by the Constitution to protect our liberties will have been destroyed. That way lies the slow death of liberty. It must not be permitted.

We have been told by this administration, Trust us. I'm not in a very trusting mood these days, nor should we ever trust any administration without judicial and congressional oversight.

I remind everyone here that there is a bill that passed this House, the RESTORE Act, last November. The Senate finally got around to passing a bill yesterday. Now we are being told we should have no time to work out the differences as we normally try to do, we must take the Senate bill sight unseen. Frankly, that's an insult to every Member of this House and to the prerogatives of this House. We passed a bill. They passed a bill. We should have 21 days to work out the differences. American liberty is depending on this, and the integrity of this House depends on this. I urge passage of this bill.