WASHINGTON - Justice Department and intelligence community officials today submitted a bill to Congress asking for changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The American Civil Liberties Union urged lawmakers to reject this new attempt to erode the Fourth Amendment and its protections.

The following may be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

"Like the sly fox guarding the henhouse, the Justice Department is selling this new bill as a better way to protect our privacy and civil liberties. Lawmakers should reject such false advertising. FISA has been constantly violated since President Bush authorized warrantless wiretapping and data mining of Americans by the National Security Agency in 2001.

"Congress shouldn’t reward a president who continuously disregards the rule of law. FISA has already been amended numerous times. It doesn’t need to be ‘modernized,’ it needs to be followed."

For more on the ACLU’s work on FISA, go to:

www.aclu.org/fisa