Senate OKs bill to extend eavesdropping
The measure also shields phone carriers from lawsuits. House Democrats have opposed such protections.
WASHINGTON — The Senate approved espionage legislation Tuesday that would expand the government's authority to intercept international phone calls and e-mails and to block lawsuits against U.S. telecommunications companies that aided in past spying efforts.
The 68-29 vote was a victory for the White House, which has battled Congress for two years over the legality of an eavesdropping operation -- launched by President Bush in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks -- that involved intercepting calls in the United States without court warrants.
Despite Senate passage, the fate of the legislation remains uncertain. The Senate bill has to be reconciled with competing legislation that passed in the House. Democrats in that chamber have opposed shielding the phone companies from liability for taking part in what some members have called an illegal spying operation.
Senior congressional aides said there was no clear path to a compromise on the issue. But a series of recent defections by moderate Democrats in the House raises prospects that the White House position -- or something close to it -- eventually may prevail.
As part of a stopgap measure passed last month, the government's existing surveillance powers are to expire Friday.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) said the measure would "restore civil liberties protections . . . and allow for targeted surveillance of potential terrorists."
But critics said the vote sacrificed civil liberties in a capitulation to the White House. Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) said the Senate had let the Bush administration "off the hook for its illegal wiretapping program."
Among the major presidential hopefuls in the Senate, John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted in favor of the bill; Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) did not vote.
Tuesday's vote was the latest in a series of halting attempts by Congress to update a 30-year-old statute known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs how the United States carries out electronic espionage.
The debate centers on how to update the law to accommodate new technologies, including the Internet and cellular telephones, and preserve long-standing privacy protections for Americans.
- Wiretap, Tribunal Bills Get Senatorial Shuffle Sep 26, 2006
- Senate OKs bill to extend eavesdropping Feb 13, 2008
- Wiretap Funding Cutoff Is Warned Apr 28, 2006
