On top of everything else that’s going on this week, the Senate is practically rushing through an overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), at the president’s behest.
Under pressure from President Bush, Democratic leaders in Congress are scrambling to pass legislation this week to expand the government’s electronic wiretapping powers.
Democratic leaders have expressed a new willingness to work with the White House to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it easier for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on some purely foreign telephone calls and e-mail. Such a step now requires court approval.
“We hope our Republican counterparts will work together with us to fix the problem, rather than try again to gain partisan political advantage at the expense of our national security,” Harry Reid said in a statement Monday night.
That sounds fine, but there’s reason for some skepticism — and for the Senate to take its time on this one. The NYT reported that “Democrats appear to be worried that if they block such legislation, the White House will depict them as being weak on terrorism.”
First of all, the notion that lawmakers have to fear yet another ridiculous White House smear should hardly be a motivating factor. Second of all, every time Dems have rushed through national-security legislation at Bush’s behest, they’ve regretted it later.
In this case, we’re dealing with a particularly egregious problem. The White House has already conceded that it’s blowing off existing law, it won’t disclose to Congress the extent of its legally dubious surveillance efforts, and Congress is ready to hand over more power?
Here’s an idea: maybe Bush can start following the law before Congress starts amending it?
There’s some disagreement between Congress and the administration over the details. Consider this gem:
One obstacle to a deal this week is a disagreement between Democrats and the White House over how to audit the wiretapping of the foreign-to-foreign calls going through switches in the United States.
The Democrats have proposed that the eavesdropping be reviewed by the secret FISA court to make sure that it has not ensnared any Americans.
The administration has proposed that the attorney general perform the review.
Yes, Democrats want some kind of judicial oversight, while Bush wants Alberto Gonzales to ensure there are no abuses.
For more, the ACLU has put together a very helpful “Myth vs Fact” sheet, and McJoan and Jeralyn both have excellent posts on the subject.
Stay tuned.