JURIST - Paper Chase: House Republican calls for FISA changes

[JURIST] US Rep. Heather Wilson [official website] (R-NM), chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence [official website] has called for a complete review of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text], which governs the monitoring of phone calls within the United States for national security reasons, so that proper congressional oversight may be given to the NSA's domestic spying program [JURIST news archive]. A spokesman for the House Republican said she is requesting an update to the act to bring it in accordance with recent technological advances, and also because she feels that the House Intelligence Committee is entitled to full briefings.

The Bush administration has only conducted limited Congressional briefings on the controversial NSA program, including only the so-called "Gang of Eight" [Wikipedia backgrounder], which consists of current leaders of the House, Senate, and its intelligence committees. Wilson, however, says that proper oversight has not been granted to Congress as required by FISA, and is calling for revisions to the act which would make this clearer. AP has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

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