House passes wiretapping bill

Does not protect telecom firms from lawsuits

WASHINGTON - Extending a battle with the Bush administration over espionage laws, Democrats in the House pushed through legislation yesterday that gives the government expanded wiretapping authorities but does not shield phone companies from lawsuits for aiding US spy agencies.

The bill was approved in the face of a veto threat from President Bush, who has campaigned to have Congress expand the government's powers to intercept international e-mails and phone calls and compel telecommunications companies to cooperate.

The legislation passed, 213 to 197, in a vote that followed party lines and came just before lawmakers left for a two-week recess. It marks the latest in a series of attempts by Congress to update electronic surveillance laws that were passed before the advent of the Internet or cellphones.

But the vote yesterday did little to move toward a resolution on the issue. The House measure must be reconciled with a bill passed by the Senate that is far closer to what the Bush administration has sought.

The vote also reflects an emerging willingness by House Democrats to defy the White House on a national security issue after being accused repeatedly in recent years of succumbing to administration pressure out of fear of being portrayed as soft on terrorism.

Republicans responded by suggesting that House Democrats were leaving the nation vulnerable by failing to pass legislation that had been the subject of intense lobbying by top US intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell.

"The Pelosi Democrats are rolling the dice with our national security," said Senator Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California.

But House Democrats have called such criticism from Republicans a scare tactic and said that the legislation strikes a balance between providing US spy agencies necessary tools to monitor communications of terrorist networks while protecting civil liberties of US citizens.

Representative Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the bill was passed despite a "relentless drumbeat of propaganda and disinformation orchestrated by the administration."

Indeed, the vote came one day after the House held a rare secret session at the request of House Republicans who sought a chance to debate the bill without fear of divulging classified information. The secret session was the House's first since 1983.

The House and Senate measures both represented attempts to overhaul a 1978 law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The House language would expand the government's authority to intercept e-mails and phone calls coming into the United States, and it would give the government the power to compel telecommunications companies to give US spy agencies extensive access to data flowing across their networks.

The main source of disagreement has been over whether to immunize those companies retroactively from lawsuits for taking part in a warrantless wiretapping program that was authorized by Bush after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that involved monitoring communications of US citizens. AT&T, Verizon, and other companies face at least 38 lawsuits.

The Senate version of the bill grants those companies retroactive liability protection. Prospects for reconciling the House and Senate versions in a form that could win the support of Bush remain unclear.

Democrats said the lawsuits should not be quashed unless Congress knows in detail why the immunity is necessary.

"All members of Congress should see those documents so they could see the breadth and scope" of the wiretapping program, said Representative John Tierney, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, said the government may have as many as five ongoing clandestine surveillance programs.

"It would be reckless to grant retroactive immunity without knowing the scope of programs out there," she said.

• Searched
• E-Mailed