Renee Montaigne: Mr. McConnell, the Bush administration says that if the Protect America Act isn-t made permanent, it will tie your hands, intelligence hands, especially when it comes to new threats. But isn-t it true that any surveillance underway does not expire, even if this law isn-t renewed by tomorrow?

Michael McConnell: Well, Renee it’s a very complex issue. It’s true that some of the authorities would carry over to the period they were established for one year. That would put us into the August, September time-frame. However, that’s not the real issue. The issue is liability protection for the private sector