Jeff Merkley on Government Reform

Democratic Senate Challenger; member of State House

Oppose FISA: no immunity for telecomm surveillance

In a post to his DailyKos diary, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley urged the US Congress to oppose the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The bill, which is supposed to allow for the U.S intelligence community to have flexibility in identifying and targeting foreign threats to American security, was passed by the House on Friday by a 293-129 vote.

Merkley sees controversy in the part of the bill which gives immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in surveillance on domestic citizens. "The bill will force federal district courts to immediately dismiss any cases against telecommunications companies that participated in illegal surveillance," Merkley wrote. "This is unacceptable. The Constitution of the United States was violated. Over several years telecommunications companies turned over the records of millions of innocent Americans to the federal government without proper oversight and without a warrant."

Source: Britten Chase on PolitickerOR.com Jun 23, 2008

Spending limits on campaigns, plus full disclosure

Q: Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?

A: Yes.

Q: Would you vote to ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring an annual balanced federal budget?

A: No.

Q: Do you support using vote-by-mail for all elections?

A: Yes.

Source: Oregon State 1998 National Political Awareness Test Nov 1, 1998

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Page last updated: Dec 02, 2008