Conflicting Bills on Warrantless Surveillance Advance in Senate

[babylonsister]

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/


CONFLICTING BILLS ON WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE ADVANCE IN SENATE

The Senate Judiciary Committee set the stage for further
congressional debate over warrantless electronic surveillance by
reporting out competing bills that are mutually contradictory.

A bill sponsored by Committee Chairman Arlen Specter would sharply
diminish judicial oversight of intelligence surveillance under the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and expand unilateral
presidential authority. On the other hand, a bill sponsored by
Senator Dianne Feinstein would reaffirm that FISA is the exclusive
mechanism for conducting domestic intelligence surveillance, while
making certain modifications in the Act.

"The bill makes compliance with FISA entirely optional, and
explicitly validates the President's claim that he has unfettered
authority to wiretap Americans in the name of national security,"
said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in a critical commentary.

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/leahy091306.html

"I have been briefed on the terrorist surveillance program," said
Sen. Feinstein, "and I have come to believe that this surveillance
can be done, without sacrifice to our national security, through
court-issued individualized warrants for content collection on U.S.
persons under the FISA process."

"So I have offered this provision to ensure that the program is
carried out under the law and to make it clear that FISA remains the
exclusive authority for the content collection on U.S. persons," she
said.

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/feinstein091306.html

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) charged that the Bush Administration had
deliberately withheld information about the surveillance program
from Congress to frustrate congressional oversight.

"This refusal to respond to legitimate information requests from the
Oversight Committee, combined with the administration's
over-restriction of member and staff access to the NSA program, is
part of a cynical White House strategy to prevent Congress from
either acting or forcing it to legislate on vital national security
and privacy issues in the dark," he said.

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/rock091306.html

Sen. Russ Feingold concurred that due to excessive secrecy, "The
Judiciary Committee was left to legislate in the dark, with many
members blindly seeking to legalize illegal behavior without even an
understanding of whether those changes are actually necessary."

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/feingold091306.html

Meanwhile, in the House, a bill sponsored by Rep. Heather Wilson
(R-NM) faced opposition from the Bush Administration and its
Congressional allies, as well as from civil libertarians.

The bill was examined in detail in a new report from the
Congressional Research Service. See "H.R. 5825 (109th Congress):
'Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act'," September 8, 2006:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL33637.pdf

The various competing bills were discussed, and notably analyzed by
James X. Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology, in a
September 6 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. See:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_hr/index.html#fisa4

The full hearing record of three Senate Judiciary Committee hearings
earlier this year on "Wartime Executive Power and the National
Security Agency's Warrantless Surveillance Authority" has just been
published (908 pages). See:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_hr/nsasurv.html

[annabanana]

1. Folks.. We have to keep an eye on this stuff...

It's a cinch that our ever-lovin' media aren't on the job!

[jazzjunkysue]

2. 908 pages: Anyone got a free week?

Oh, sure. The legislators will read that. Sure they will.