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Advocacy Blog
Friday, December 14, 2007
Senate Plans Debate On FISA Next Week
Senators plan to begin debating permanent revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) next week, but this does not guarantee that anything will be accomplished. The Senate Judiciary Committee did not approve Senator Arlen Specter's (R-PA) bill that would have substituted the government as the defendant in lawsuits against the telecommunications companies. Specter will likely offer the measure as an amendment during floor debate. According to CQ ($$) "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid planned to file a petition to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed to a bill (S 2248) by Senate Intelligence Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV. Reid said the cloture vote would occur early Dec. 17." Meanwhile the Senate Judiciary Committee reported a different version of S. 2248, without language on telecommunications immunity, which will be offered as an amendment during floor debate. A recent report by the Congressional Research Service compares the House bill and the different Senate proposals.
Fourteen Senators sent a letter urging Reid to accept the Judiciary bill as the base bill. "While the structure of Title I of both bills is the same, and both make improvements over the Protect America Act, the reasonable changes to Title I made in the Judiciary Committee ensure that the FISA Court will be able to conduct much-needed oversight of the implementation of these broad new surveillance authorities, and help to better protect the rights of innocent Americans."
We too hope that the Senate takes on the Judiciary Committee's changes. The ACLU has an action alert here where you can tell your Senators to support the Judiciary approach and oppose immunity. The temporary changes to FISA that passed in August expire in February and given the pressure of this deadline and the rush to leave for the holidays, hopefully nothing will be passed in hast as was done in August.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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