Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said he is disappointed that the Senate failed to adopt an amendment he wrote to significantly improve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) legislation currently being debated in the Senate. The vote was 42-56.  

The FISA bill gives the U.S. government more power to legally monitor foreign communications. But it also gives blanket retroactive immunity to telecom companies that assisted with the Bush administration's unlawful warrantless wiretapping program. While the bill orders a federal investigation into the companies' actions, these telecom companies would be granted liability protection before the investigation would be completed.

Bingaman's amendment would have put on hold all pending civil cases brought against the telecom companies while the investigation is ongoing. If Congress took no additional action 90 days after the completion of the investigation, the telecom companies could seek the dismissal of the lawsuits. But the amendment would have ensured that Congress has an opportunity to review the findings of the review before any companies are given blanket protection for their past actions.

"I believe the American public expects Congress to act in an informed manner. And quite frankly, other than select members of the Intelligence and Judiciary committees, this Congress hasn't been fully informed about the circumstances surrounding this program. That is precisely why the investigation required under this legislation is so important," Bingaman said.

"We are talking about a program that was not conducted in accordance with the law, and from what we do know, may have violated the constitutional rights of innocent Americans. I believe the only reasonable thing to do was to keep these suits from being dismissed until at least we have a complete picture of what actions we are shielding from liability," he said.

Bingaman pointed out that although he is opposed to retroactive immunity his amendment would have maintained the overall structure of the bill and would simply allow Congress to consider the results of the investigation before companies are able to seek immunity for any past violations of the law. 

Bingaman ultimately voted against the bill because he believed it was flawed.