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Advocacy Blog
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
FISA To Be Continued
The Senate voted 76-10 yesterday (Dec. 17) to begin debate on a bill (S.2248) to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). However, after it was clear during debate that resolving the issues of the many amendments would be too difficult, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) decided to postpone the vote on the measure until after the winter break in 2008.
Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), who promised to lead a filibuster of the bill because it gives telecommunications companies retroactive immunity, made some strong remarks on the Senate floor. "The bill now before us would create a legal regime for surveillance under reworked and more reasonable rules." Dodd went on to say;
We have seen this administration chip away at the rule of law at a dozen points. Its relentlessness may be its greatest strength—the assault becomes numbing, and our healthy outrage grows dull. It was an outrage when this president set up secret courts outside the law. It was an outrage when he ignored the courts and tapped our phones. It was an outrage when he sanctioned torture. But outrage upon outrage upon outrage—and we wind up in a stupor. We've allowed each abuse with nothing more than a promise to resist the next one—and the next one, and the next one.
Meanwhile, President Bush has promised to veto any legislation without telecommunications immunity and if it has greater restrictions on how the surveillance is conducted.
Civil liberties groups are praising this news. However, there is an uncomfortable amount of time between Congress' return and the Protect America Act's (PAA) expiration of Feb. 1. The bill was pulled yesterday to avoid anything being rushed through before the winter recess, but what about this scenario; because of a time crunch a bill is simply rushed through in January or the current PAA is simply extended. We will have to wait to see what happens in January.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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