February 12, 2008

Senate Close To FISA Bill OK

The Senate was on track today to approve a White House-backed measure that would overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and give telecommunications companies retroactive legal immunity for helping the Bush administration conduct electronic surveillance on U.S. residents without court warrants.

After weeks of debate and votes on amendments, the bill remains essentially unchanged since it was crafted by the Senate Intelligence Committee and administration officials. Significantly, Republicans and a sufficient number of Democrats joined forces to defeat by large margins three amendments that would have stripped or altered the statutory immunity provision in the bill. The Senate voted 69-29 to invoke cloture on the bill, and was expected to pass it this afternoon.

But the fate of the bill remains in doubt because a House-Senate conference will be needed to resolve differences with a House-passed bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said last week that there does not appear to be enough time to complete work on a final bill before a temporary law overhauling FISA expires at the end of Friday.

The House bill, pushed through by Democrats in the fall, would require the administration to get warrants from the secret FISA court to conduct surveillance against groups of suspected terrorists. And, notably, the House bill would not give the companies retroactive legal immunity. House Democratic leaders and members of the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees have been reviewing legal documents underpinning the administration's warrantless surveillance program to determine if the companies should be given immunity.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., a key member of the Intelligence Committee, said Monday he is not ready to give the companies immunity, despite having reviewed documents. He said he had not read all the documents available, and is not sure if the administration has provided every document that is needed.

"What I can say from the papers I've seen is the surveillance program should not have gone forward as it did," he said. "The legal justifications for it were shallow at best and maybe flat-out wrong."

Hoyer suggested last week that the issue of immunity could be dealt with in separate, stand-alone legislation. When asked if the idea of doing stand-alone legislation was actively being considered, an aide to Hoyer said Democratic leaders were waiting to see the final Senate bill before deciding how to proceed.

With tension mounting, House Minority Leader John Boehner called on House Democratic leaders to immediately bring the Senate bill to the floor for a vote.

"In the face of politically motivated pressure from the radical left, the Senate passed a good, bipartisan bill that will help keep America safe by closing the terrorist loophole in our nation's surveillance laws," Boehner said in a statement. "After months of stalling, House Democratic leaders should bring it up for a vote immediately. Delaying action any further will put our national security at risk, and that is unacceptable."

The White House was also likely to exert public pressure on Democrats to pass the Senate bill.

-Chris Strohm, CongressDaily

Posted at 4:05 PM
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