SmallGovTimes.com

By: SGT News | Published on 06/19/08    

After months of turmoil over the government’s legal authority to wiretap foreign and domestic targets, the House finally reached a deal that provides the federal government with authority to execute warrantless wiretaps under particular circumstances.

The deal could be brought up for a vote in the House as early as Friday.

The bill provides the government with wide-reaching authority to wiretap and eavesdrop on foreign targets, and also gives the government the authority to wiretap domestically without a warrant if critical security information might be lost otherwise.

The agreement would also absolve telecommunications companies who participated in the eavesdropping program shortly after the September 11th attacks from bearing any legal liability, provided the companies operated under legitimate government direction.

Disagreements still exist from both sides of the aisle over the freedom that the bill provides the National Security Agency (NSA) and whether or not it excuses domestic surveillance activity by the Bush administration that some consider illegal.

Both Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said they will not support the proposed legislation, making it unclear how likely the bill is to pass through Congress and onto the president’s desk.

“I have said since the beginning of this debate that I would oppose a bill that did not provide accountability for this administration’s six years of illegal, warrantless wiretapping,” said Leahy. “This bill would dismiss ongoing cases against the telecommunications carriers that participated in that program without allowing a judicial review of the legality of the program. Therefore, it lacks accountability measures that I believe are crucial.”

Democrat Steny Hoyer supports the bill, arguing it balances the needs of the intelligence community with civil liberties and privacy concerns of the American people and also implements crucial accountability that currently does not exist.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendment bill also would:

- Require FISA court permission to wiretap Americans who are overseas

- Prohibit targeting a foreigner to secretly eavesdrop on an American's calls or e-mails without court approval

- Allow the FISA court 30 days to review existing but expiring surveillance orders before renewing them

- Prohibit the government from invoking war powers or other authorities to superseding surveillance rules in the future.

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