WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed the FISA Amendments Act, a bill that would engender sweeping changes in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and could negatively affect U.S. citizens.Chief among the items in the bill is one that provides immunity to telecommunications companies that have been accused of cooperating with intelligence agencies covertly spying on Americans after the September 11th, 2001, attacks. The warrantless surveillance was not revealed until media reports began circulating last year. The Bush administration has threatened to veto any bill that does not include the immunity provisions, which will invalidate civil lawsuits already in the courts.
The bill also gives the government broader, permanent authority to engage in warrantless monitoring of electronic communications.
Mired in deadlock since November 15th — when the House passed similar legislation that does not include the immunity provisions — the Senate bill passed on a 68 – 29 vote only days before the Friday expiration of a stopgap law. The House and Senate now must reach a compromise between the two bills before passing a single piece of legislation along for the President’s signature. However, two-thirds of House Democrats have vowed not to approve legislation that grants telecom immunity.
In order to give both houses of Congress time to reconsider the legislation and work out a compromise plan, House Democratic leaders earlier this month introduced a bill that would grant another 21-day extension to the current temporary surveillance law. On Wednesday, Bush warned he will not agree to any temporary measures or deadline extensions.
“The lives of countless Americans depend on our ability to monitor these communications,” Bush told a press conference. “We must be able to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying and what they are planning.”
To that end, the new bill would make permanent a provision passed last August that allows security agencies to engage in warrantless spying on phone calls and emails between Americans and other parties overseas. Previously calls and emails could be intercepted in the U.S. — regardless where they originated — only if warrants were obtained.
Both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology have denounced the Senate’s version of the bill.
“Immunity for telecom giants that secretly assisted in the [National Security Agency’s] warrantless surveillance undermines the rule of law and the privacy of every American,” EFF senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston told The Washington Post. “Congress should let the courts do their job instead of helping the administration and the phone companies avoid accountability for a half decade of illegal domestic spying.”
CDT Senior Counsel Greg Nojeim added, “The telecom immunity provision sends a message that it’s OK for a telecom to assist with unlawful surveillance when secretly asked to do so by the government.”
Bankston said the EFF is working with House negotiators to keep the immunity provisions out of the final bill.
