Q Dana, how confident is the White House that the Congress will pass a Protect America Act permanent fix by the 15th? I seem to remember, I think it was Tony Fratto that said that it was talked about a patchwork of extensions. Are you worried that they're going to say, we need another 15 days, or --
MS. PERINO: Well, legislating by extension for our intelligence community is no way to run a counterintelligence program. One of the most important weapons you can have in this war against terrorists is intelligence and good information about what they are planning, how they are planning, and how we can stop them.
So we don't think that the Congress needs much more time to debate this. It's been debated not just for the last six months, but for about a year and a half. So they have this legislation is front of them, a bipartisan package that was passed in the Senate committee by 13 to 2, which is quite remarkable given the partisan nature of Capitol Hill. So we think February 15th is a hard and fast deadline that they need to meet. Matt.
seen at 12:22, 5 February
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Whitehouse Press Briefings.
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