House Democrats introduce surveillance bill rewrite

[babylonsister]

House Democrats introduce surveillance bill rewrite
By Helen Fessenden
October 09, 2007

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) unveiled Tuesday a long-awaited bill that would tighten oversight on foreign-intelligence surveillance, undoing several contested provisions in an interim measure that Congress passed shortly before the August recess.

The House intelligence and judiciary panels will mark up the legislation Wednesday, and Hoyer said a floor vote is expected next week. But the legislation could draw resistance from liberal Democrats citing civil liberties concerns, while Republicans are expected to balk if the final legislation does not include a retroactive immunity provision for the telecommunications companies that participated in the Bush administration’s secret Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) without a court order.

Under the August interim bill, known as the Protect America Act (PAA), Congress amended the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to grant new sweeping powers to the attorney general and the director of national intelligence (DNI). The bill allowed them to conduct warrantless surveillance for any foreign policy objectives and intercept communications involving Americans, as long as it concerned a target “reasonably believed” to be abroad.

The bill largely sidelined the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which had traditionally granted warrants for all foreign-intelligence surveillance within the U.S.

Bt contrast, the new House Democratic bill would strengthen the court’s role and mandate quarterly audits of the program by the Department of Justice’s inspector general.

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-democrats-introduce-surveillance-bill-rewrite-2007-10-09.html

[redqueen]

1. Strengthen the court's role?

What was wrong with it before?

*sigh*

[gateley]

2. It's a STEP, but not nearly what we'd like to see. Do you suppose it was written

this way in order to ensure more R votes? Politics - they muddy up everything.

[Lucinda]

4. That's exactly what I think

I think they are trying to restore things in tiny baby steps that they can get away with.

[Lucinda]

3. I'll have to think it through a bit more

but on the surface, I like the idea of the "basket warrant." It seems like a good way to move quickly in certain specific situations.

I do like seeing some reigning-in of the prior bill. Not sure it's enough yet though.