"There's nothing specific," Little said. "The White House has agreed and committed to work with Congress on an expanded role in oversight and some sort of legislative solution. But there is nothing particular or specific beyond that."
Other Republican aides said no legislative language had been shared with the White House. But White House and congressional officials said the discussions were focusing on DeWine's proposal, which also would create a new subcommittee on the Senate Intelligence Committee solely to monitor the National Security Agency program.
Critics have called the DeWine approach inadequate.
"To simply exclude communications from the coverage of FISA and allow secret wiretapping without a warrant ... would be a clear violation of the 4th Amendment," Kate Martin, director of national security studies at George Washington University, said in an e-mail message.
Meanwhile on Thursday, the Justice Department was ordered by a federal judge to respond within 20 days to requests by a civil liberties group for documents about the National Security Agency program.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center had sued the department under the Freedom of Information Act seeking the release of the documents.
In a setback for Bush, U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy ordered the department to finish processing the group's requests and produce or identify all records within 20 days. A Justice Department spokesman said the agency was reviewing the ruling.\o7
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