[Infowarrior] - FISA Showdown immediately before SOTU Address

[Richard Forno]

Spying Showdown Pushed to Hours Before State of Union Address; No Civil Lib
Amendments Allowed

By Ryan Singel EmailJanuary 24, 2008 | 5:37:14 PMCategories: NSA

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/spying-showdown.html

Republican leadership in the Senate made their move early Thursday evening,
successfully blocking any votes on amendments to the intelligence bill and
forcing the Senate to vote only on the Administration-approved bill worked
out by the Senate Intelligence committee.  That vote will come on Monday at
4:30 just hours before the President delivers the State of the Union address
from the Senate floor.

The Intel committee bill expands the government's wiretapping authority and
gives immunity to the telecoms that helped the government secretly spy on
Americans without getting the warrants required by law.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) railed and whined about the
tactic and said he would vote against 'cloture' -- which would have limited
the debate time and the possible amendments.

His comments prompted a postponement of the cloture vote until Monday at
4:30. If the Republicans win that vote, the Senate will have until 6 pm
Tuesday to debate the bill as it currently stands and then vote on it.

In the meantime, the Senate will be open for business, but no amendments to
the spying legislation will be voted on or introduced.

The move also places the vote just four and a half hours before President
Bush delivers the State of the Union address on Monday night at  9 p.m.,
when he is expected to forcefully argue for Congress to give him the spying
powers.

Reid castigated the Republicans for not allowing debate and discussion on
amendments that would have required reports on the goverment's secret
wiretapping program, re-affirmed that spying could only happen by following
wiretap law, and strengthened bans on the government finding loopholes to
target Americans for surveillance without getting warrants first.

"We offered an extension of the current law for a month, several months, a
year, 18 months," Reid said. "But the Republican leadership don't want to
extend the program."

"It is really not fair we be asked to accept hthis without being able to
vote on a single amendment," Reid complained.

The current law, known as the Protect America Act, expires on February 1.
The measure gives the intelligence community wide powers to unilaterally
order domestic communication companies to help the government spy, a power
the Administration says it needs to snoop on foreign terrorists.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) countered that the
Intelligence bill was the product of months of bipartisan work --
essentially a known quantity that could be ruined by amendments.

"We do know the pres will sign the Rockefeller-Bond proposal before us,"
McConnell said, referring to the Senate Intelligence Committee's top
Democrat and Republican respectively.

Dick Durbin followed to second Reid's disappointment and to clarify that no
amendments would be voted on in the meantime.

"They want the president's version of the bill -- take it or leave it,"
Durbin railed of the Republican leadership. "They would run the risk of
shutting down the program."

The Center for Democracy and Technology's Greg Nojeim described the move for
cloture as a way for the Administration to pass the measure without civil
liberties amendments, many of which were being pulled piecemeal from the
Judiciary committee version of the bill that was voted down earlier
Thursday.

Even if the Senate passes the Intel committee bill on Tuesday, it will need
to work out a compromise with the House, before sending the bill to the
president for signature. The House version, known as the Restore Act,
doesn't include immunity for telecoms and severely constrains when the
government can spy in America without warrants -- essentially blocking bulk
collection activities allowed in the Protect American Act and the Senate
Intel bill.

One possible scenario: the House bows to pressure and quickly passes
whatever the Senate passes, thus making a conference and re-votes on the
compromise legislation unnecessary.