The Heritage Foundation's Research on FISA

Report Homeland Security

The Heritage Foundation's Research on FISA

February 12, 2008 1 min read
THF
The Heritage Foundation

The Senate is preparing to vote on legislation to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the 1970s law that governs intelligence-gathering. The executive branch must have the powers it needs to protect Americans from acts of war by foreign enemies. The following is a list of Heritage Foundation research on FISA.

Congress Must Stop Playing Politics with FISA and National Security
by James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Robert Alt, and Andrew M. Grossman
January 31, 2008

Congress's 15-day extension of the Protect America Act puts intelligence-gatherers in an impossible situation. Congress must make the authorities in the Protect America Act permanent and enhance its provisions to provide retroactive and permanent liability protection to American businesses that cooperate with reasonable Intelligence requests.

The Intelligence Community Needs Clear-and Permanent-FISA Reform
by Robert Alt, Todd F. Gaziano, and Brian Walsh
January 25, 2008

The war on terrorism is not a brief skirmish but a long war, and the tools needed to wage it should therefore not be hobbled by artificial expiration dates imposed for political advantage.

Will Congress Permanently Close Scary Intelligence Gap?
by Michael Franc
October 27, 2007

Last week, House leaders were pressing ahead with legislation that would dramatically hamper the ability of U.S. field commanders and Intelligence officers to win the war in Iraq.

Free the Hostages
by K. A. Taipale and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
October 25, 2007

Private telecommunications carriers are caught in the middle of a purely political power struggle, raising the possibility that these vital partners in anti-terror intelligence-gathering will be unwilling and unable to participate in future security operations.

Modernize FISA, But Don't Hobble American Intelligence Operations
by Brian Walsh and Todd F. Gaziano
October 16, 2007

The "Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007" (RESTORE Act) would impose a Byzantine and unprecedentedly burdensome Intelligence regime on those charged with protecting Americans from international terrorists.

Fixing Surveillance
by K. A. Taipale and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
January 27, 2006

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is no longer adequate. Congress should amend FISA to provide for programmatic approvals of cutting-edge technologies-including automated monitoring of suspected terrorist communications.

Authors

THF
The Heritage Foundation