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the hillDems regroup to overhaul FISA
By Susan Crabtree
September 06, 2007
The Bush administration is taking a beating for failing to explain the changes to the federal wiretapping law that Congress passed quickly before it left town for its August recess.
Congressional Democrats didn’t waste any time before revisiting the temporary fix to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that they agreed to pass amid administration claims in July and early August that terrorist chatter was heating up, just as it did before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The new law would allow the government to monitor suspects in national security investigations without first seeking court approval in cases when one party is reasonably believed to be abroad, a change that has alarmed privacy and civil liberties defenders. The new law expires in six months, and Democrats have made an extension beyond that a top priority, but on their terms.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) held a hearing on the FISA changes Wednesday in part as a response to a request from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said the new changes are “unacceptable” and warrant “corrective action.”.........
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