Merkley sounds off on FISA at Daily Kos

U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley: Campaign photoIn his first post to his DailyKos diary in almost three months, U.S Senate candidate and Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) urged the U.S Congress to oppose the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 on Tuesday.

The bill, which is supposed to allow for the U.S intelligence community to have flexibility in identifying and targeting foreign threats to American security was passed by the House on Friday by a 293-129 vote. Greg Walden (R-Hood River) was the only Oregon representative to vote for the bill.

Merkley sees controversy in the part of the bill which gives immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in surveillance on domestic citizens.

"The bill will force federal district courts to immediately dismiss any cases against telecommunications companies that participated in illegal surveillance," Merkley wrote. "This is unacceptable. The Constitution of the United States was violated. Over several years telecommunications companies turned over the records of millions of innocent Americans to the federal government without proper oversight and without a warrant."

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