by Amanda Erickson
It's official: FISA isn't going anywhere until after the Fourth of July recess.
Lawmakers will not vote on the domestic spying bill until July 8. The decision to hold the measure until then came after a day of procedural maneuvering by some senators who were upset with the bill's offer of retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the federal government 's warrantless requests to eavesdrop.
When the bill comes back to the floor, Sen. Chris Dodd (D. Conn.) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) will introduce an amendment that would strike the immunity clause. Civil liberty proponents say this is important because it will give them the tools they need to dig up more information about the program. Without data, they say, they aren't able to bring cases arguing the wiretapping should be illegal.
"I hope that over the July 4th holiday, Senators will take a closer look at this deeply flawed legislation," Feingold wrote in a statement. "It is possible to defend this country from terrorists while also protecting the rights and freedoms that define our nation."
When the Senate finally votes, the bill will almost certainly pass with the immunity amendment.
Until late this afternoon, some staffers had still been (optimistically, it turns out) predicting that the measure would pass before the senators fly home for their breaks. Others thought it would be held until after the holiday. An announcement on the floor by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) around 7:15 tonight put the rumors to rest.
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Comments
Sweet another week of headlines about his straddle on gun control until Obama flip-flops again.
Posted by: Jeff | June 26, 2008 10:01 PM
Sure hope Obama changes his mind and comes out against this loss of civil rights.
Posted by: Dat ain't right. | June 26, 2008 11:45 PM
Why don't the Dem's just write Bush a blank check and go home till January? I'm really losing all hope for this party. Dodd and Feingold are the only ones to show any backbone.
Posted by: DD | June 27, 2008 12:27 AM
Hey guys--
Last I checked, Harry Reid represented Nevada, rather than Arizona.
Posted by: Pedant01 | June 27, 2008 12:33 AM
Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd are troublemakers who do things like foist amendments at the last minute to derail legislation.After July 4th holiday the rest will put a sensible bill back in place not just fodder for ACLU lawyer types but meaningfull legislation to protect our nation from Islamic Jihadists out to do us harm.The FISA bill is necessary to protect our nation this evesdropping is just hype for leftys blogs. Jerry White, Springfield, IL
Posted by: Jerry White | June 27, 2008 9:25 AM
As a comment to Jerry White's say. I disagree to your comment and would like to take notice that your assumption that Islams are the only threats. This assumption is false as we need to protect our country from unlawful terrorism. The majority of Islamic leaders don't wish to harm the United States, just the less than 0.000000001% of the billion of muslims that belong to such organizations as Al-Quida. As such, we have a few such immoral organizations here to, such as our Nazi parties. I believe Benjamin Franklin had it right "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. " To give up our right of privacy, for safety is unpractical. Besides, this newly added power is little for our protection on terrorism. Terrorism is only an excuse the "rightys" like to use all so often. Sound familiar to the war on Iraq?
-Connor Nyberg
American Citizen
Dubai, U.A.E
Posted by: Connor Nyberg | June 29, 2008 6:28 AM