WASHINGTON — A divided Senate Judiciary Committee, muddying the outlook for an issue Republicans consider key to the midterm elections, on Wednesday approved widely divergent bills aimed at overhauling domestic eavesdropping laws.
The committee endorsed a White House-backed measure that would give President Bush broad authority for his warrantless wiretapping program. It also approved legislation by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would largely preserve a 1978 law governing domestic spying while making few provisions for new executive powers.
While one lawmaker decried the Senate approach as "totally contradictory," the House Judiciary Committee abruptly canceled a vote on its own version of the surveillance reform law amid signs of dissension among Republicans there.
Meanwhile, three GOP senators -- John W. Warner of Virginia, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- on Wednesday underscored their opposition to an administration plan to reinterpret the Geneva Convention as part of setting up procedures to try suspected terrorists before military tribunals. Graham said the proposal was "not necessary," adding: "It makes me suspicious as to why we need to do it."
The mixed bag of action and reaction came as the White House announced that Bush planned to make a rare visit to Capitol Hill today to confer with House Republicans and push his national security initiatives.
The White House said it was confident that lawmakers ultimately would enact the measures Bush was promoting. But the growing disharmony over the president's tribunal plan drew warning shots Wednesday from some administration officials.
In a conference call with reporters, John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence, warned that if an alternate version of the tribunal bill proposed by McCain passed, the CIA would be forced to shut down its interrogation program.
"If it goes forward as proposed, this will not allow for the CIA high-value terrorist detention program to go forward," Negroponte said.
The Judiciary Committee's eavesdropping vote was a rare rebuke for an administration that has tested the limits of executive power since Sept. 11.
The panel's eight Democrats were joined by two Republicans -- Graham and the committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- in approving the Feinstein measure.
