FISA Bill Wouldn’t Drastically Expand Legal Capability (Sen. Jeff Sessions)

There’s never been any doubt that this country has a right to surveil foreign communications in the national security and this bill in no way alters the fundamental civil rights protections that we expect as Americans.  It is not any major expansion of our legal capability to intercept foreign communications that may be injurious to America.

I feel strongly that the legislation has been narrowly drafted.  I do not think companies who were asked in writing by the attorney general of the United States to assist this country ought to be sued for doing their duty, and ultimately I’m hopeful that we will get this behind us because one thing is crystal clear and that is that this is very important.  Without continuing this fix, we are going to lose dramatically in intelligence gathering capability.