PRESIDENT BUSH - PROTECT AMERICA ALERT

President Bush: "We Share A Responsibility To Protect Our Country"

President Bush Calls On House To Pass Bipartisan Senate Bill To Give Our Intelligence Professionals Tools They Need To Monitor Terrorists Quickly And Effectively, Says "This Is Not A Partisan Issue"

President Bush: "[T]he problem is, should companies who are believed to have helped us – after 9/11 until today – get information necessary to protect the country, be sued.  And my answer is, absolutely not; they shouldn't be sued."  "And now they're getting sued for billions of dollars – and it's not fair, and it will create doubt amongst private sector folks who we need to help protect us."  (President George W. Bush, Remarks At Meeting With National Governors Association, The White House, 2/25/08)

·         Without liability protection, "it'll make it harder to convince companies to participate in the future."  "I mean, if you've done something that you think is perfectly legal and all of a sudden you're facing billions of dollars of lawsuits, it's going to be hard to provide – with credibility – assurances that we can go forward."

·         "[S]uch lawsuits would require disclosure of information, which will make it harder to protect the country."  "You can imagine when people start defending themselves, they're going to be asked all kinds of questions about tactics used.  Makes absolutely no sense to give the enemy more knowledge about what the United States is doing to protect the American people." 

President Bush: "[W]e have got to give the professionals who work hard to protect us all the tools they need."  "To put it bluntly, if the enemy is calling to America , we really need to know what they're saying.  And we need to know what they're thinking.  And we need to know who they're talking to."

·         "This is not a partisan issue."  "There is a very strong bipartisan bill that passed the Senate, and it's a bill that we can live with. … And it's a bill that should be put on the House floor for a vote, up or down."

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