For Immediate Release:                                                                  Contact: Press Office
March 12, 2008                                                                                           (202) 479-7070

Bill Foster Casts First Votes to Weaken National Security
Just After Being Sworn in, Foster Voted in Lock-Step with Democrats to Block Bipartisan FISA Bill and Divert Critical Intel Funds to Pet Projects

Washington– It took the new Democrat Rep. Bill Foster (IL-14) no time at all to prove his allegiance to the liberal Democrat House leaders, despite the potentially dangerous consequences for the very voters he was elected to represent.  Last night, just after Bill Foster was sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives, Foster dutifully cast two partisan votes that compromise America’s national security. 

Bill Foster immediately abdicated his duty to protect the American people and instead cast his very first vote as a member of Congress to block the bipartisan Senate bill to renew the Protect America Act (House Roll Call 116). 

Bill Foster is already playing partisan politics with America’s national security. In a weak attempt to distract voters from the Democrats’ negligence to renew the Protect America Act, Foster voted in lock-step with the liberal Democrat leadership to fund duplicitous pet projects over critical human intelligence programs. 

Bill Foster cast his second vote in the House to gut human intelligence funding in order to stuff the Intelligence Authorization bill chock full of pet projects, including Jack Murtha’s “boondoggle” earmark, and a funding mandate to monitor climate change as a potential “security threat” (House Roll Call 117).

“Bill Foster didn’t waste any time in showing his true liberal colors.  It only took Foster a matter of hours to prove to Illinois voters that he would be a lapdog for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s dangerous national security agenda,” said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain.  “Bill Foster’s votes to strip our intelligence community of critical funding and tools are the first pieces of evidence that he is out of touch with the voters of his district and not serious about national security.” 

###