TOPICS
TOPICS
Senate passes FISA bill after yearlong dispute
The Senate approved by a 69-28 vote Wednesday a sweeping revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, giving the Bush administration long-sought spying powers and legal protections for telecommunications companies that have helped the government conduct electronic surveillance on U.S. residents without warrants.
Enough Democrats joined Republicans to defeat three amendments to the bill that would have rolled back legal protections for the telecom firms.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, voted for all three amendments, while Arizona Sen. John McCain his presumptive Republican rival for the White House, was absent.
President Bush is expected to sign the bill, ending nearly a year of bitter partisan wrangling in the House and Senate over modernizing FISA.
Under the bill, the government would not need to obtain warrants to monitor foreigners whose phone or e-mail conversations pass through or are stored by U.S. communications hubs.
The government also would not need warrants to monitor the communications of U.S. residents who come into contact with suspected foreign terrorists as long as the U.S. resident is not the target of surveillance and his or her communications are minimized. Individual warrants would be needed if the target of surveillance is a U.S. resident or, for the first time, an American traveling abroad. The administration would have to submit its surveillance procedures to the secret FISA court for approval before surveillance could begin, except under exigent circumstances.
The bill would give telecom firms retroactive legal immunity from civil lawsuits if they can show a federal district court judge that they received written directives from the Bush administration that the National Security Agency's warrantless electronic surveillance program was authorized by Bush and determined to be legal. A Senate Intelligence Committee report made clear that the firms received such directives, essentially guaranteeing that about 40 civil lawsuits against them will be dismissed.
In a 66-32 vote, senators defeated an amendment by Sens. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., that would have stripped the immunity provision from the bill. It needed 50 votes to pass.
Senators also defeated, 61-37, an amendment by Senate Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that would have required the district court to determine if the warrantless surveillance program was constitutional before granting immunity to the companies. It needed 60 votes to pass.
On a 56-42 vote, the Senate also rejected an amendment from Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa., and Specter that would have stayed the lawsuits against the companies until Congress could review the findings of a comprehensive inspectors general report on the warrantless surveillance program. It needed 60 votes to pass.
Senior Bush administration officials had said they would recommend the bill be vetoed if any of the amendments were approved. The bill includes language making FISA the exclusive means under which the administration can conduct surveillance. Additionally, all provisions in the bill will sunset at the end of 2012.
COMMENTS
- Here are some expert comments on the subject: They that can give up an essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin, 1759 I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. -Thomas Jefferson Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add "within the limits of the law" because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) Today, as always, the people, no less than their courts, must remain vigilant to preserve the principles of our Bill of Rights, lest in our desire to be secure we lose our ability to be free. -Chief Justice Earl Warren The peculiar circumstances of the moment may render a measure more or less wise, but cannot render it more or less constitutional. -John Marshall Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purpose is beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -Louis Dembitz Brandeis, lawyer, judge, and writer (1856-1941) The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defense against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad. -James Madison, 4th US president (1751-1836) As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. -William O. Douglas, judge (1898-1980) History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure. -Thurgood Marshall, US Supreme Court Justice (1908-1993) Apparently Congress doesn't understand the above quotes because, in passing the FISA, they have broken their oaths to support and defend the Constitution. Rich Zellich Posted July 14, 2008 12:45 PM
- I think it's clear that the during times of war and for national security purposes our county's ability to collect "real time intelligence" is very important for U.S. Presidents, Republican or Democrat alike. (Hence Senator Obama's vote for what President Bush has always believed in) Thank God the British have it together and thrwarted the attempted airplane attacks on the United States, back in August 2006. They did this with similar means as our FISA programs. These are intelligence wiretaps to protect the United States. The Government is not looking to prosecute you for any crimes. These intercepts are used to protect our country from future attacks. There are lots of places in the world that lack national security. If you want to move there please don't let us stop you. (Maybe the FARC in Colombia is looking for another hostage if you want to volunteer your services to them.) If telecommunication companies did not get limited immunity under this new FISA law they would be reluctant to provide information the the U.S. Government in the future (both Republican and Democrat administrations). I know it's been almost seven years, but WE WERE ATTACKED on 09/11/01! This is/was not a joke or a game. The U.S. Government has an obligation to protect Americans from future attacks. The same people who complain that their rights have been violated will be the first to call for a Congressional investigation if we are attacked like 9-11 again. Thank you to all who finally passed this FISA bill and shame on those who made it a political issue when it's always been an American security issue. Thank You! Posted July 11, 2008 6:06 PM
- While short term problems like the economy and the current conflict seem to occupy the minds of many Americans as we enter this electoral season; without a doubt the gravest long term threat to our way of life is the erosion and loss of our Constitutional freedoms, rights, and privileges. This vote shakes my faith to the core! If I felt I had ANY better option, I would be smacking the Blue Dogs down with my outrage cast in my vote against ANY who backed this legislation!! They’re just damned lucky the other side is even worse in its draconian expansion of executive powers and the negation of our rights!! I am REALLY curious what they got for selling out our rights!! Tip off Posted July 10, 2008 12:53 PM
