Talking Points:

• Congress must pass a FISA bill that protects our national security and preserves our civil liberties
  
  
• Congress must oppose retroactive immunity for phone companies that participated in the Bush-Cheney Administration warrantless surveillance program
  
  
• Congress must stand up to scare tactics that suggest congressional Democrats' efforts to get the FISA bill right this time will invite another terrorist attack
  

• The FISA bill the White House wants would give the Attorney General the sole discretion to provide retroactive and prospective immunity to telecommunication companies that cooperated with the Administration's illegal wiretap program.
  
  
• The proposed FISA bill would bypass checks and balances by allowing Administration officials to issue year long surveillance orders, without any court pre-approval, as long as one participant in the conversation is foreign.
  
  
• The proposed FISA bill would allow broad dragnet surveillance orders which could easily sweep up Americans' communications.
  
  
• The White House is pushing for a bill that would allow the government to use and retain indefinitely any information collected about an American under its warrantless surveillance program.
  
  
• The current FISA bill would permit the Attorney General to shut down any and all pending cases against telecom communications that broke that law and handed private customer information over the government.
  
  
• Telecom companies must be held accountable, but retroactive immunity would let them off the hook and could not ever be undone.

A Message from Sen. Leahy and Rep. Conyers:

As the chairmen of the U.S. House and Senate's Judiciary Committees tasked with modernizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), we are working hard in Congress to pass a FISA bill that protects our national security, preserves our civil liberties, and denies retroactive immunity to phone companies who went along with Bush-Cheney Administration lawbreaking.

Now we're at a critical juncture.  The House and Senate have passed different versions of new FISA legislation, so we're currently in a conference committee with colleagues from both Houses of Congress to hammer out a final FISA bill.  At the same time, President Bush and his Republican allies are pressuring our colleagues to give in and grant retroactive immunity – which we both strongly oppose.

That's why we need your help, right now, as the final FISA bill is being negotiated, to push back against the White House.  Please write a letter-to-the-editor of your local newspaper to speak out and build grassroots support for fixing FISA the right way – without letting the Bush Administration and phone companies off the hook for breaking the law.

We're not giving in to Republican pressure.  So now the Bush Administration is ratcheting up their scare tactics and implying that congressional Democrats' efforts to get the FISA bill right this time somehow invite another terrorist attack. They are trying to scare Congress and the American people into accepting a FISA bill that includes retroactive telecom immunity and erodes our privacy rights.

They've even launched a dramatic television ad evoking ticking time-bomb imagery straight out of primetime's 24 to shock the American people into supporting another flawed FISA law. We've seen these tactics before, but we can't let them get away with it this time.

That's why we need your help to build grassroots support all across America and fight back against the Republican noise machine.  We are pushing for a better FISA bill in Congress, but a few loud voices in Washington are more determined than ever to ram through another flawed piece of legislation.

Your letter-to-the-editor will ensure that friends and neighbors in your own community see past the Administration's fear-mongering. And when your Members of Congress turn to the editorial page in their hometown newspaper, they'll think twice about siding with Administration officials and phone companies who illegally spied on their constituents.

We have teamed up to push for a final FISA bill that protects our national security, preserves our civil liberties, and refuses retroactive immunity for telecom companies so all lawbreakers will be held accountable.  But we need your support to get this bill passed.  

Thank you for taking the time to write a letter-to-the-editor of your local newspaper, and for working with us to get FISA right this time.