House passes FISA bill, Boehner blasts Dems

The House Saturday evening passed 227-183 a bill that will update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

President Bush, who had pushed hard in the past weeks to get the legislation passed, hailed the vote and vowed to sign the bill as soon as it reaches his desk. The Senate had approved the legislation Friday.

{mosads}“Tonight the House joined the Senate in passing legislation that will close a critical gap in our intelligence collection, and I appreciate their efforts to complete the legislation before the August recess,” Bush said, adding, “I also want to remind Congress that our work on reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is not complete. When Congress returns in September, we need to work together on additional reforms, including the important issue of providing meaningful liability protection to those who are alleged to have assisted our Nation following the attacks of September 11, 2001.”

Before the House headed for recess, Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) sent a letter to fellow Republicans slamming Democrats for how they conducted themselves in the first seven months in power.

His comments were triggered by a vote Thursday night that Republicans say was stolen. At issue is whether Democrats gaveled to a close a vote that Republicans believe they had won.

“In one telling instant…, the Democratic majority revealed it is willing to break any rule, trample on any precedent, and run roughshod over its own Members to defend a left-wing, big government agenda most Americans utterly reject,” Boehner said in the memo to Republican lawmakers.

Boehner urged his colleagues to use the August recess “to talk to our constituents about these matters – not for the purpose of making them more cynical, but to make certain every American realizes what is at stake.”

Democrats, however, said that the last weeks, in which Congress passed several significant pieces of legislation, showed that they have been successful as the party in power.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the passage of an energy bill Saturday “caps an incredibly productive first seven months for the new Democratic Majority in the House.”