Battle over wiretapping bill looms in Senate

[babylonsister]

Battle over wiretapping bill looms in Senate
By Manu Raju | Posted: 11/16/07/ 1:16 p.m.
November 16, 2007


Long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd renewed his threat Friday to derail the Senate’s plan to consider new restrictions to President Bush’s foreign-intelligence surveillance program if retroactive legal protections are proposed for telephone companies that allegedly wiretapped U.S. citizens without a warrant.

The Connecticut senator told reporters Friday that he is “vehemently opposed to retroactive immunity” and that he would use any “vehicle available , including a filibuster.”

That could complicate the Senate’s plans to consider a bill approved by the Intelligence Committee last month that would grant retroactive immunity to the telephone companies that allegedly participated in the program after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Dodd’s threats come as the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday to rewrite the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The bill, approved on a 10-9 party-line vote, has significant differences from the Intelligence Committee bill.

Most notably, the Judiciary bill is silent on the issue of retroactive immunity. The bill’s provisions would also sunset after four years, rather than the six-year requirement backed by the Intelligence Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the Intelligence Committee bill will be brought to the floor in December, and the Judiciary Committee bill will be offered as a substitute amendment. Reid would not say which bill he supports, saying he still had to study the Judiciary measure, and he downplayed the differences between the two measures.

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/battle-over-wiretapping-bill-looms-in-senate-2007-11-16.html

[Bitwit1234]

1. Let it expire...bush would really be in a heap of trouble because

the 1978 bill would go back into effect.