WASHINGTON — The House voted late Thursday to rewrite the nation's domestic wiretap laws, giving President Bush new power to monitor the e-mail and phone records of U.S. citizens during terrorism investigations without having to obtain court approval.
But lawmakers were unlikely to deliver final legislation to the White House before leaving this weekend for the election campaign, a setback for the administration, which has made national security a pillar of its strategy to maintain Republican control of Congress.
The House measure would endorse the once-secret program Bush launched after Sept. 11, authorizing the National Security Agency to monitor international communications between terrorism suspects and people in the U.S. without first obtaining warrants. It would also set new rules for warrantless surveillance during emergencies and give Congress a bigger role in monitoring the surveillance.
The measure was approved, 232 to 191, with 18 Democrats supporting it. Thirteen Republicans opposed the bill.
The action came as the Senate was immersed in approving another Bush priority: legislation setting procedures for trials of military detainees and interrogating terrorism suspects.
Some lawmakers said the Senate could still take up the wiretap issue in a lame-duck session after the Nov. 7 election. Failing that, Bush would be deprived of congressional backing for what he has called one of the administration's most important anti-terrorism programs.
The House and Senate bills generally would expand executive power to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance, but they differ in key respects.
Each bill would change the definition of electronic surveillance so that in most cases warrants would be required only if the communication occurred within the U.S. or if a person in the U.S. was intentionally targeted. If the target was outside the U.S. -- as Bush has described his NSA program -- then court review would not be required.
That would be a big change from current law, which requires a court order to intercept calls or e-mails into or out of the U.S.
Critics said the bills would greatly expand surveillance of citizens without court approval.
"They would allow more warrantless surveillance of Americans than has ever before been approved by statute in U.S. history," said Lisa Graves, a legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union.
