The Wall Street Journal-20080213-Senate Approves Surveillance Measure
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Senate Approves Surveillance Measure
Full Text (711 words)WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday approved a measure to expand domestic spy powers and grant legal protections to companies that aided the government's domestic surveillance, delivering President Bush a victory on one of the White House's signature national-security issues.
The 68-29 vote, more lopsided than many expected, sets up a standoff between the House of Representatives and the Senate, with both chambers facing the expiration of the temporary surveillance law unless they act by week's end. A House bill passed last year doesn't include a provision to grant the phone companies immunity.
If the White House prevails in the final negotiations, it will hand Republicans a potent weapon for their 2008 campaign arsenal by showing that their party, even in its weakened state, can still beat Democrats on national-security issues.
"We lost every single battle we had on this bill," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who led the opposition to the immunity provision. "The question is now: 'Can we do better with the House carrying the ball?'" The White House has threatened to veto any bill that doesn't provide immunity.
After succumbing to White House pressure to approve a temporary expansion of surveillance powers in August, Democratic leaders in both chambers vowed to pare the government's spying power about two years after revelations that the U.S. had been eavesdropping without warrants. The bill under consideration makes permanent much of the broadened domestic spy powers, though it does include additional oversight provisions for Congress and the specialized court that governs this area.
It also grants legal immunity to companies in an attempt to negate approximately 40 lawsuits against phone companies, including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. Representatives for AT&T and Verizon declined to comment.
Senators rejected multiple attempts to truncate or strip immunity protections from the measure.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the intelligence panel and who sponsored the bill, said while the administration should be "held accountable" for its warrantless- surveillance activities, "we should not hold the carriers hostage to years of litigation for stepping forward when the country asked for their help."
On the House side, lawmakers who have seen documents outlining agreements between phone companies and the government aren't convinced of the case for immunity. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan wrote to the White House that he has concluded "there is no basis" for immunity.
Democratic leaders in the House, who have tried to keep their party's liberal and centrist members united, are debating their options. They plan tomorrow to propose a 21-day extension of the current law to allow time to negotiate with the Senate. If the extension fails, they might let the law expire as they work through a compromise, congressional aides said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has proposed a two-week extension of the deadline and urged the House and Senate to "not let this critical issue be resolved by White House bullying." Mr. Bush has said he won't support such a move.
House Democrats face the challenge of competing factions within their ranks. While 21 of the more conservative Democrats have signed a letter supporting the Senate bill, other Democratic lawmakers have argued for splitting off the immunity issue from the rest of the surveillance proposal and taking it up separately.
Mr. Bush commended the Senate bill and urged the House to pass the Senate bill "without delay," suggesting that only quick passage of the Senate bill would ensure "that the flow of critical intelligence information is not interrupted."
If Saturday's deadline is not met, the law would revert to the surveillance rules in effect last summer before Congress approved the six-month expansion of spy authorities. All spy operations authorized under the new law would continue at least through August, but new operations would be required to obtain warrants.
Of the three leading 2008 presidential contenders -- senators all -- the only one missing from the Senate debate was Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama mixed with colleagues on the Senate floor before voting against immunity, but didn't vote on the final bill. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican, voted in favor. Sen. Clinton has said she opposed the bill.
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Dionne Searcey contributed to this article.
