House OKs bill setting new electronic surveillance rules
WASHINGTON - The House, in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, yesterday approved a sweeping surveillance law that extends the government's eavesdropping capability and effectively would shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits for cooperating with the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.
Ending a yearlong battle with President Bush, the House passed, by a 293-to-129 vote, an overhaul of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, also called FISA.
The bill provides a legal avenue for AT&T,
Before the vote, Bush said the plan, which is expected to clear the Senate next week, would help thwart errorist attacks. "It's vital that our intelligence community has the ability to learn who the terrorists are talking to, what they're saying, and what they are planning," he said.
Only one Republican opposed the bill, but Democrats were sharply divided. And the legislation presented a foreign policy dilemma for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. The presumptive Democratic nominee for president announced his support of the bill despite active opposition to it from the liberal activist base that has financially fueled his campaign.
"Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program," Obama said in a statement.
Obama had previously opposed the Senate version, which passed on Feb. 12, because it gave "blanket immunity" to the telecommunications firms, according to a statement issued at the time.
Senator John McCain of Arizona, the expected Republican presidential nominee, supports the FISA legislation.
Democrats have resisted passing a new FISA law since last summer and implemented a temporary act that expired in August. They demanded more information about the warrantless wiretapping program that the administration pursued for years after the terrorist attacks. But after four months of negotiations, the bill gives intelligence agencies most of what they had been seeking.
The agreement gives telecom companies the ability to have privacy lawsuits thrown out if they demonstrate to a federal judge that they received written assurance from the Bush administration that the spying was legal. House GOP leaders and opponents of the legislation consider the new court review a formality that will lead to dismissal of the suits.
The bill requires approval by the secret FISA court of procedures for intercepting foreigners' e-mails and telephone calls. Spying on US citizens, including those overseas, would require individual warrants from the same court.
The government eavesdropped on American phone and computer lines for almost six years after the Sept. 11 attacks without permission from the FISA court.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said she supported the bill primarily because it rejects Bush's argument that a wartime chief executive has the "inherent authority" to conduct some surveillance activity he considers necessary to fight terrorism.
Some civil liberties and privacy groups are opposing the bill, objecting not only to the immunity provision but to what they consider a weakening of the FISA court's oversight of government eavesdropping.
Critics of the bill believe civil lawsuits are the only way the full extent of the wiretapping program will ever be revealed. They say dismissal of the suits is a foregone conclusion.
"These provisions turn the judiciary into the administration's rubber stamp," said Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, who opposes the bill. 