Senate votes to consider FISA bill with telco immunity

A procedural hurdle that would have stopped debate on a controversial amendment to the FISA law failed in the US Senate early this afternoon.

By a vote of 76-10, the US Senate has voted to consider an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that contains a controversial provision granting telecommunications companies immunity from federal prosecution for having cooperated with the government in surveillance operations.

The procedural vote means that the provision, not only supported but mandated by President Bush as a requirement before it's signed into law, will be debated on the Senate floor. Amendments will likely be offered to the bill that strike the provision, including one from presidential candidate Sen. Chris Dodd (D - Conn.) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D - Wisc.).

And even if those amendments fail, the Senate version of the bill will have to be reconciled with a House version which omits immunity for telcos.

In a statement this afternoon, Sen. Feingold took his own party's leadership to task, condemning Majority Leader Harry Reid (D - Nev.) for having chosen the Intelligence Committee's version of the FISA legislation over the Judiciary Committee's version, backed by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D - Vt.), a staunch opponent of telco immunity.

"By choosing the Intelligence Committee bill over the Judiciary product," Feingold wrote this morning just prior to the noon vote on Capitol Hill, "Senator Reid has made things much tougher for those of us who think the courts -- not Congress -- should decide whether the companies deserve immunity. He's also made it an uphill struggle of those of us who want more court oversight of the broad new surveillance powers included in the bill."

For his own part, Sen. Leahy issued his own laments.

"This Administration violated FISA by conducting warrantless surveillance for more than five years," Leahy wrote this morning. "They got caught, and if they hadn't, they would probably still be doing it. When the public found out about the President's illegal surveillance of Americans, the Administration and the telephone companies were sued by citizens who believe their privacy and their rights were violated. Now the Administration is trying to get this Congress to terminate those lawsuits in order to insulate itself from accountability. We should not allow this to happen."

Sen. Reid's office has yet to issue a statement on the matter at mid-afternoon Monday, nor has the office of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D - W.V.), who leads the Intelligence Committee that supports the immunity provision.