On KFKA, Independence Institute's Oliver let Allard's chief of staff falsely assert that House Dems "allowed FISA to expire"

Summary: During a February 22 discussion about the U.S. Congress' "agenda for next week," 1310 KFKA's Amy Oliver failed to correct the false statement by her guest, Sean Conway, that "House Democrats allowed" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) "to expire." Conway, who is chief of staff for Sen. Wayne Allard (R) and appears frequently on KFKA, later added that "if I'm a Democrat out there, you'd [] better hope that something does not happen in this country while this bill lapses." In fact, FISA did not expire, a separate measure amending the act did.

On her February 22 1310 KFKA broadcast, host and Independence Institute Director of Operations Amy Oliver allowed frequent guest Sean Conway -- chief of staff for Colorado Republican U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard -- to assert that "House Democrats allowed FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] to expire last Saturday." Conway later added, "I don't know about you, but if I'm a Democrat out there, you'd best, better hope that something does not happen in this country while this bill lapses. Because I guarantee, we're not allowing the NSA [National Security Agency] and our folks who are given the responsibility to protect us, and protect our homeland security, the opportunity to do the best job they can." In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, FISA did not lapse or expire.

What expired on February 16 was the Protect America Act (PAA), which amended FISA and, among other things, expanded the government's authority to eavesdrop on Americans' domestic-to-foreign communications without a warrant. Indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) noted in a February 13 statement that "the underlying Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provides for the surveillance of terrorists and provides that in emergencies surveillance can begin without warrant, remains intact and available to our intelligence agencies."

Furthermore, The Washington Post reported in a February 15 article headlined "If the Law Expires" that if the PAA were allowed to lapse, "[t]he government would retain all the powers it had before last August under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which requires the government to obtain court approval for surveillance conducted on U.S. soil or against U.S. targets." Additionally, a February 14 New York Times article reported:

The lapsing of the deadline would have little practical effect on intelligence gathering. Intelligence officials would be able to intercept communications from Qaeda members or other identified terrorist groups for a year after the initial eavesdropping authorization for that particular group.

If a new terrorist group is identified after Saturday, intelligence officials would not be able to use the broadened eavesdropping authority. They would be able to seek a warrant under the more restrictive standards in place for three decades through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The House voted February 13 on a 21-day extension of the PAA. Democrats voted in favor of the extension 191 to 34, but all House Republicans voting on the proposal opposed it, and the bill was defeated.

From the February 22 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show:

OLIVER: What can we expect; what's on the agenda for next week?

CONWAY: Well, I think top priority is FISA reauthorization. I just cannot believe the House Democrats allowed FISA to expire last Saturday. I mean, we're a country at war. The idea that this is not a valuable tool that has helped prevent terrorist attacks in this country, legislation that was passed by overwhelming bipartisan -- almost 70 percent of the Senate voted for this, 69 votes. And the House has just simply said, we're not going to accept this, because we want to have, you know, terrorists be able to sue phone companies if they're listening to our conversations. It's insane.

OLIVER: Yeah --

CONWAY: I mean, I don't know about you, but if I'm a Democrat out there, you'd best, better hope that something does not happen in this country while this bill lapses. Because I guarantee, we're not allowing the NSA and our folks who are given the responsibility to protect us, and protect our homeland security, the opportunity to do the best job they can. And so, my hope is that reason will prevail and that we can get FISA reauthorized so we can allow those folks that are out there doing a great job protecting us here in the United States to continue to do so.

—C.H.