Senate backs protections for telecoms
At issue is immunity for firms that helped the government with warrantless wiretaps.
WASHINGTON - The Senate gave a strong boost yesterday to legal protections for telephone companies that helped the government conduct a warrantless-wiretap program, dramatically increasing the chances the legislation will survive a final vote next week.
In a 60-36 vote, the Senate rejected a proposal from the Senate Judiciary Committee that did not include immunity for the telecoms.
Instead, the Senate kept alive a competing proposal from its intelligence committee that would offer legal protections to the companies and that has strong support from the White House.
The outcome increases the chance of an intraparty Democratic skirmish over the surveillance law, which would replace a stopgap measure passed in August that is due to expire in a week.
Quick action
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has asked President Bush to agree to a one-month extension, but Bush said in a statement yesterday that lawmakers must act quickly.
"Congress' action or lack of action on this important issue will directly affect our ability to keep Americans safe," Bush said.
In an attempt to sway opinions in the House, the White House yesterday gave members of the House intelligence and Judiciary Committees access to secret records related to the warrantless-wiretapping program.
Similar committees in the Senate were granted such access in the fall, according to legislative aides and other sources. House staff members immediately began examining the documents, sources said.
Two area senators, Thomas R. Carper (D., Del) and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) voted with the majority to reject the measure that left telecoms unprotected. The rest voted for it.
The temporary surveillance law - approved under heavy White House pressure - gives the government broad powers to eavesdrop on the communications of terrorism suspects without warrants.
In effect it legalized practices employed by the National Security Agency as part of a secret program approved by Bush in late 2001.
The White House and Republican lawmakers are pushing to make the law permanent while adding legal protections for telecommunications companies, which face dozens of lawsuits.
Most House Democrats and civil-liberties groups strongly oppose immunity for the communications firms, but some Democrats - including Sen. John D. Rockefeller 4th of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee - back the GOP position.
Reid said he was opposed to granting legal protections to the companies but designated the intelligence committee's bill as the starting point for Senate debate.
Given the Senate's composition, his decision means that opponents would effectively need 60 votes to strip immunity from the bill; Democratic aides concede they do not have those votes.
Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said they may put forward amendments providing more limited legal protections for the telecommunications companies, but the prospects for compromise are uncertain.
For example, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) is proposing an amendment that would require phone companies to justify their post-Sept. 11, 2001, actions to a secret intelligence court.
Confident
Rockefeller predicted yesterday that his panel's immunity proposal "will prevail." Six of the committee's eight Democrats supported the legislation, giving Republicans a crucial edge in the narrowly divided Senate.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D., Conn.) has threatened a filibuster to block any bill that includes immunity.
Once the Senate acts, the bill would go to a conference committee that includes members of the House, which has approved a bill that lacks immunity provisions and would increase oversight of the government's spying activities.