FISA revision bill passes US Senate

By Michael Fraase

Wednesday, 09 July 2008 08:16PM CST

Section: Law

AT&T: Your world delivered to the NSABy a vote of 69-28, the US Senate today passed legislation to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The bill includes retroactive immunity for the nation’s telecommunications conglomerates and broadens the government’s power to surveil its citizens.

Minnesota’s senators voted predictably: Senator Amy Klobuchar voted against the bill; Senator Norm Coleman for. Hey, Norm! Pay attention on 8 August (more on that later). Klobuchar may have voted against today, but she voted for the measure last month when it really mattered—when the US Senate voted to invoke cloture. Cloture is a parliamentary procedure that prevents a filibuster.

Senator Christopher Dodd‘s (D-Connecticut) amendment stripping the retroactive immunity provision failed by a vote of 66-32. An amendment offered by Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) that would have required assessment by a district court judge to determine the legality of the warrantless wiretapping before immunity was granted also failed by a vote of 61-37. A final amendment, brought by Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) that would have postponed immunity for a year, subjecting it to federal investigation, failed by a vote of 56-42.

Eric Lichtblau, writing for the New York Times, reports that Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-Missouri), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, “there was nothing to fear in the bill ‘unless you have Al Qaeda on your speed dial,’” in closing arguments.

Indeed.

Lichtblau calls the measure “the biggest restructuring of federal surveillance law in 30 years.”

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