Senate Postpones Vote on Illegal Wiretapping Bill

The Associated Press:
The Senate on Thursday put off voting on controversial electronic surveillance legislation, in spite of what appeared to be overwhelming support for the bill. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and more than a dozen other senators who oppose telecom immunity threw up procedural delays that threatened to force the Senate into a midnight or weekend session. The prospect of further delays was enough to cause Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to postpone the vote until after the weeklong July 4 vacation. The bill provides legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the government wiretap American phone and computer lines without court permission after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Related:
Senate Debates Rewrite of '78 Law
That Created Secret Intelligence Court
By Paul Kane / The Washington Post:
The Senate, clearing a key parliamentary hurdle, yesterday voted to begin debating a broad revision of U.S. intelligence laws that includes a controversial plan to grant immunity to telecommunications companies that assisted in the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. On a vote of 80 to 15, the Senate officially began debate on a sweeping rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, with an eye toward final passage of the bill as early as today. The large margin demonstrated that the bill's opponents -- the American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy rights organizations -- do not have enough support to derail the measure through a filibuster, which Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) had threatened.

Posted by Editor at June 27, 2008 01:48 AM