Surely they wouldn't sell us out for a measly $8,359.00?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Randall Webmail [rvh40 () insightbb com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 11:24 PM
To: dewayne () warpspeed com; David Farber; johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com
Subject: Surely they wouldn't sell us out for a measly $8,359.00?

<http://www.maplight.org/FISA_June08>

HOUSE DEMS WHO CHANGED THEIR VOTE TO SUPPORT FISA BILL, GIVING IMMUNITY TO TELCOS, RECEIVED, ON AVERAGE, $8,359 IN PAC 
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM VERIZON, AT&T, AND SPRINT



BERKELEY, CA—Last week, on June 20, the House of Representatives approved a compromise bill to amend the Foreign 
Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). The bill sets new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield 
telecommunications companies from lawsuits resulting from the government’s warrantless eavesdropping on phone calls and 
viewing of emails of private citizens in the U.S. Approximately 40 lawsuits have been filed with potential damages 
totaling in the billions of dollars.

On March 14 of this year the House passed an amendment that rejected retroactive immunity for phone carriers who helped 
the National Security Agency carry out the illegal wiretapping program without proper warrants. Ninety-four House 
Democrats voted in favor of this measure--rejecting immunity--on March 14, then ‘changed’ to vote in favor of the June 
20 House bill--approving immunity.

“Why did these ninety-four House members have a change of heart?” asked Daniel Newman, executive director of 
MAPLight.org, “Their constituents deserve answers.”

MAPLight.org's research department compiled PAC campaign contributions from Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint and correlated 
them with the voting records of all House members who voted on last week’s FISA bill. (The analysis used data from CRP; 
contributions were from January 2005 through March 2008). Here are the findings:

Comparing Democrats' Votes (March 14th and June 20th votes):

Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint gave PAC contributions averaging:

$8,359 to each Democrat who changed their position to support immunity for Telcos (94 Dems)
$4,987 to each Democrat who remained opposed to immunity for Telcos (116 Dems)


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