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After the Senate passed S.1927, to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid still was not happy. Rather than summarize his statement it is presented below.

August 3, 2007
Reid Statement On Senate Action On FISA Legislation

Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following statement today in response to the Senate’s vote in favor of the Bond FISA legislation:

“A few weeks ago, I made a personal commitment to the Director of National Intelligence that I would lead the Senate to passage of a bill that would help protect America from terrorist attack by enhancing our intelligence community’s foreign intelligence collection capability.

“Senate Democrats worked in good faith with the Director of National Intelligence to produce the Rockefeller-Levin bill that was tough on terrorists, provided much-need oversight of the Attorney General, and did not infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens. Rather than pass this bill, my Republican colleagues chose to rubberstamp a flawed Administration proposal that fails to provide the accountability needed in light of the Administration’s repeated past mismanagement of key tools in the war on terror.

“This bill will sunset in six months. Over the course of the fall, I expect the Senate to work diligently on more permanent legislation that will better serve American national security interests and the American people.”

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Some said many Democrats voted for S.1927 because the President had asked Congress not to leave on vacation before providing the tools necessary for counter terrorism in the next few months. In addition it was suggested that many who voted to pass this bill did so to not look bad to the American people by leaving town without finishing this. Whether it is true or not, Senator Harry Reid should not blame the GOP but admit that the Democratic majority in the Senate that he ‘leads’ is only really between 28 and 34 Demoratic Senators. You can tell that by the roll call votes for S.2011 which he wanted and S.1927 which he did not. Both bills needed a 3/5 majority or 60 YEA votes.

Vote Summary

Question: On Passage of the Bill (S.2011 )
Vote Number: 310
Vote Date: August 3, 2007, 09:37 PM
Required For Majority: 3/5
Vote Result: Bill Defeated
Measure Number: S. 2011
Measure Title: A bill entitled “The Protect America Act of 2007″.

Vote Counts:

YEAs 43
NAYs 45

Not Voting 12

The YEA votes belonged to one Independent and the rest, Democrats

The NO votes belonged to one Independent, one Democrat and the rest Republicans

Six Democrats and six Republicans did not vote.

Below are the results for the bill, S.1927, that passed.

Vote Summary

Question: On Passage of the Bill (S.1927 as Amended )
Vote Number: 309
Vote Date: August 3, 2007, 09:16 PM
Required For Majority: 3/5
Vote Result: Bill Passed
Measure Number: S. 1927
Measure Title: A bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to provide additional procedures for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence information and for other purposes.

Vote Counts:

YEAs 60
NAYs 28

Not Voting 12

The YEA votes belonged to one Independent, 16 Democrats and 43 Republicans.

The No votes belonged to 28 Democrats.

Six Democrats and six Republicans did not vote.

A similar situation may have hamstrung Senator Harry Reid during the defeat of the amnesty bills in all their versions, amendments. But part of the problem is the so-called leadership of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Bashing the President, the GOP in general and hoping that surrender in Iraq and elsewhere would vault them to the White House in 2008 is not the kind of leadership that gets the job done. But it does help give Congress the lowest approval rating they may have ever seen. Some say it is the lowest in decades if not in history. It is below the President’s approval rating. So much for calling your work the will of the American people. And limiting what the members of Congress can do while in session does not appear to be working either. It does appear however to be the method Reid and Pelosi have chosen to have things their way. Again, it is not working even among members of their own party.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 1:47 am and is filed under Bush, Terrorism, wordpress, GOP, Democrats, Reid, Congress, Legislation, Mitch McConnell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.