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Advocacy Blog
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Senate Passes FISA Bill Protecting Phone Companies
As expected, the Senate passed a measure to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), S.2248, granting retroactive legal immunity for telecommunications companies that helped with warrantless surveillance. After weeks of debate and votes on amendments, the bill remains basically the same as it did when passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee. None of the amendments passed that would have in any way reduced executive spying powers.
The New York Times describes the events; "After more than a year of wrangling, the Senate handed the White House a major victory on Tuesday by voting to broaden the government's spy powers and to give legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush's program of eavesdropping without warrants."
The temporary extension expires February 16, leaving little time for a House-Senate conference to resolve the very different measures. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has introduced a 15 day extension to allow time to complete negotiations, but President Bush has said he would refuse to sign it. Now Congress will be up against the argument that if the Senate version is not simply accepted or if the current law is left to expire, the country will be vulnerable to a terrorist attack. This ignores the fact that current investigations can continue until August or possibly later, and the FISA court can still be used to get approval for new wiretaps. As a quote from Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) explains; "Some people around here get cold feet when threatened by the administration."
The main discrepancy between the two chambers is the issue of immunity, and House Democrats argue that the administration has not provided enough evidence to justify providing such retroactive immunity. In a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said, "refusal to provide the requested information belies its position on the importance of legislation: rather than the Administration giving Congress all the information it needs, the Administration has provided a slow trickle of information to only selected members of Congress, almost assuring that Congress cannot adequately consider its requests." Conyers' letter also requested additional. In addition, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and two subcommittee chairs sent a dear colleague letter urging House Members to avoid rushing into a decision on retroactive immunity.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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