Walz statement on RESTORE Act/FISA: no retroactive immunity

Raw Story reports that the House plans to vote on their version of the RESTORE Act today. The article describes the House version in these terms:

The bill, which will be voted on later Thursday, does not include a provision to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that the Bush administration has demanded and it restores the role of the FISA court in approving surveillance methods used by the National Security Agency that could ensnare Americans.

The Walz congressional office issed the following statement today about the RESTORE Act:

Today, Congressman Tim Walz released the following statement about H.R. 3773, the RESTORE Act. The House is expected to vote on the RESTORE Act some time today.

"With today's vote on the RESTORE Act, the new leadership of the House of Representatives has kept its promise to improve the civil liberty provisions in the FISA reform legislation Congress passed in August. I support the RESTORE Act because it protects the civil liberties of all Americans while still giving our government the ability to conduct surveillance on foreign targets who threaten our national security.

In the legislation, the House of Representatives has also refused to provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies who participated in the President's illegal terrorist surveillance program because the Bush Administration refuses to provide the House with any information on the nature of that program."

Think Progress has posted a summary of the RESTORE Act here. We're not sure how up-to-date the post is. We'll post more later as we get a chance to review the issues.