FISA letter to Representative Heath Shuler (NC-11)

Written by: Doug Gibson on Feb 12, 2008 10:08 PM EST

The following is the text of a group letter that DFA-Asheville will fax to Heath Shuler's office on Thursday morning, after our February meeting:

Febuary 13, 2008

Representative Heath Shuler
512 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC 20515

Dear Representative Shuler:

We the undersigned citizens of Buncombe County are writing to ask you to vote against Senate Bill 2248, the FISA Amendments Act of 2007, if the bill reaches the floor of the House. This is a deeply flawed bill that grants the President sweeping new powers and effectively circumvents any judicial oversight of surveillance of phone calls and other electronic communication by U.S. citizens

You have already voted for HR 3773, The RESTORE Act, and we applaud your vote. HR 3773 is a far superior bill, and we hope that it will eventually form the basis for any revision of FISA. But whatever happens, we ask that you do the following as Congress continues its work:

1. Vote against any bill that gives telecom companies immunity. Lawsuits must be allowed to proceed or we’ll never know the truth about what laws were broken and how many Americans rights were violated.

2. Vote against any bill that allows the government to spy on Americans without getting a warrant. America doesn’t need a bill that needlessly expands the President’s ability to spy on innocent Americans without a warrant.

3. Don’t let the Senate or President Bush steamroll the House of Representatives. Any bill to regulate spying on Americans must respect the Constitution and must not let phone companies off the hook for warrantless spying.

We thank you for your time and attention, and we trust that, once you investigate the issues involved, you will agree with our position.

Sincerely,
(signatures attached)

We encourage others in the 11th district to send the same letter, or a similar one. And we encourage other DFA groups to do the same with their members of Congress.

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Location: Asheville, NC 28801