WASHINGTON - June 14 - U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is calling on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte to provide the entire Senate Judiciary Committee with information about the President’s illegal wiretapping program. In a letter to Gonzales and Negroponte, Feingold requested that the Senate Judiciary Committee receive essential information as it considers several legislative proposals regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the government’s domestic surveillance authorities.

“At this point, the Judiciary Committee is legislating in the dark,” Feingold said. “The administration must brief the full Judiciary Committee, in a classified setting if necessary, to ensure that Congress is able to fulfill its oversight responsibilities and legislate responsibly.”

Feingold is one of only four members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who also sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The administration has finally agreed to brief the Intelligence Committee about the program, but has declined to provide information to the Judiciary Committee. While the law requires that the Intelligence Committee be fully informed of intelligence activities, the Judiciary Committee also plays an important oversight role with respect to surveillance conducted inside the United States for purposes of foreign intelligence collection.

“I remain extremely concerned about the inadequate congressional oversight of the NSA’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program,” Feingold wrote in the letter. “Based on what information has been provided to me, I remain absolutely convinced that the [warrantless wiretapping] program is illegal.”

A copy of the letter can be found at http://feingold.senate.gov/FeingoldAGDNI.pdf.

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