Wiretap, Tribunal Bills Get Senatorial Shuffle
WASHINGTON — The White House and its allies on Monday chipped away at objections to proposed legislation for its warrantless surveillance activities, winning new support among reluctant Senate members and hoping for passage of the measure before this weekend's congressional recess.
Meanwhile, new resistance to a compromise proposal for detaining and prosecuting terrorism suspects cropped up when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said the measure improperly tried to prevent federal courts from hearing challenges brought by detainees to the government's right to imprison them.
Specter's plans to amend the legislation could complicate the GOP's hopes of sending a military tribunal bill to President Bush for signing before the November elections. Specter said he would seek to amend the bill when it comes to the Senate floor for a vote this week to give detainees the right to challenge their detention in court. He is expected to be joined by a number of Democrats. The compromise continued to draw criticism.
The tribunal bill is the result of a fragile compromise worked out last week by the White House and a number of Specter's GOP colleagues. One of those, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said that he "probably has the votes" to pass the compromise legislation.
"The way you regulate running a prison in a time of war is not a judicial function," Graham said. "It's a military function."
The proposed legislation on warrantless surveillance won the support of three Republican senators who had joined Democrats in expressing concern about the bill's scope and sweep.
GOP Sens. Larry E. Craig of Idaho, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced that they had reached agreement with the Bush administration on changes to the surveillance bill.
The bill would constitute an official congressional endorsement of the once-secret surveillance program under which the National Security Agency monitors international phone calls and e-mails in the U.S. involving terrorism suspects.
A surveillance bill introduced Friday by Senate GOP leaders, refining an earlier proposal, would make it clear that the president, in some cases, had the authority under the Constitution to unilaterally order surveillance without a judge's approval.
