Posted on 08/03/2007 9:46:51 AM PDT by kristinn
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Friday that Congress must stay in session until it approves legislation modernizing a U.S. law governing eavesdropping on foreigners.
"So far the Democrats in Congress have not drafted a bill I can sign," Bush said at FBI headquarters, where he was meeting with counterterror and homeland security officials. "We've worked hard and in good faith with the Democrats to find a solution, but we are not going to put our national security at risk. Time is short."
The president, who has the power under the Constitution to keep Congress in session, said lawmakers cannot leave for their August recess this weekend as planned unless they "pass a bill that will give our intelligence community the tools they need to protect the United States."
Earlier Friday, the White House offered an eleventh-hour accord to Democrats in the negotiations over the matter, saying it would agree to a court review of its foreign intelligence activities instead of leaving certification up to the attorney general and director of national intelligence.
But it attached several conditions that could be unacceptable to Democrats: that the review would only be after-the-fact and would only involve the administration's general process of collecting the intelligence, not individual cases, said a senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity to more freely discuss internal deliberations.
SNIP
The two sides, however, still are far from striking a deal on what all agree needs to happen, and soon: an update of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
At issue is how the government would spy on foreign terror suspects overseas without invading Americans' privacy rights. Democrats want the special FISA Court to review the eavesdropping process to make sure the surveillance does not focus on communications that might be sent to and from Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Gotta love it! ;)
Good.....Democrats are complaining about the Iraqi government leaving on vacation for a month? Our Congress wants to go on vacation and not return until the middle of September. I wonder where the Iraqi’s learned about vacations?
This is a serious hole in our intelligence gathering that needs to be fixed ASAP. I’m glad the President is putting the screws to Congress on this.
Maybe he can have them convene their next session at Club Gitmo until they come with a bill he’ll sign :-)
He’s really super-good at finesse, donchathink?
For all the times they’ve put the squeeze on him, jeered, taunted, postured...there’s not a thing they can do about it.
Too bad he couldn’t have let them go home and then called them back on Sunday. LOL
Standard language warning applies:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2940501
LOL
Talk about a two-time loser.
Though aware of it, I’ve never studied that clause.
Does the President have the power to compel attendance? Could he order all Senators and Representatives to attend. That would play hell with the presidential candidates. I mean, they’re the only ones campaigning this summer.
"The president, who has the power under the Constitution to keep Congress in session...
It sure sounds that way to me.
That said, the democrats, who love to butcher the Constitution anyway, will more likely spend the majority of time attempting to override this particular provision.
Section 3 - State of the Union, Convening Congress
[The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper....
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
MAKE THEM WORK FOR THIER $ ...
I elected representatives to work... Any Congressman going on vacation while the President waits for laws that strengthen homeland security should be impeached.
LOL! This must have the moonbats whining and whimpering. Guess they haven’t read the US Constitution lately (or ever?!?). Of course, this could disconcert members of his own party who also love their vacations, so this had better get resolved promptly or else we will see a lot of wailing Congresscritters!
see #14
President does have this power under the US Constitution, and the Demagogues will just have to whine until the issue gets resolved.
The Dems dare not pass this up. If God forbid something happen in the next couple months, blood would be on their hands.
FINALLY!!
You’ve really got to wonder why it takes continual tweeks to get these approvals right. We have our legislators up there full time to address important issues. They devise the Patriot Act and other legislation, but still need to address something as easily understood as this concept.
Are these legislators as stupid as this makes them out to be?
Sadly, they must be. What person would continually screw up on the public stage so that the public could see it over and over, unless they truly were an idiot?
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