June 20, 2008 – Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) today issued the following statement on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments of 2008 (H.R. 6304):

“Madam Speaker, the coincidence of jihadist terrorism and nuclear proliferation in our world today, I believe, represents the greatest security threat to the human family.

“Osama bin Laden said, ‘It is our religious duty to gain nuclear weapons.’ If that quest should succeed, whether it is 100 yards from this Capitol or in one of our major cities, it will change our concept of freedom in a way that almost none of us can comprehend.  And our best hope of preventing that is to have effective intelligence capability.

“I believe that the Majority has risked the security of this country by delaying the vote on this important bill for so long.  But I am gratified today that at least we are taking the next step in making sure that we can see our children and grandchildren walk in the sunlight of freedom. 

“As we go forward we should keep in mind the words of our Founding Fathers, and especially Thomas Jefferson, when he said, ‘The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.’”