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Senate passes eavesdropping bill

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 10, 2008

WASHINGTON - The Senate sent the White House a bill overhauling bitterly disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping yesterday, bowing to President George W. Bush's demand to shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the United States spy on Americans.

The relatively one-sided vote, 69-28, came only after a heated debate that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks. It ended almost a year of wrangling over surveillance rules and the president's warrantless wiretapping program that was initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The House passed the same bill last month, and Bush said he would sign it soon.

Opponents assailed the eavesdropping program, asserting that it imperiled citizens' rights of privacy from government intrusion.

But Bush said the legislation protects those rights as well as Americans' security.

"This bill will help our intelligence professionals learn who the terrorists are talking to, what they're saying and what they're planing," he said in a White House appearance after the Senate vote.

The fight on Capitol Hill centered on one main question: whether to protect from civil lawsuits any telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on American phone and computer lines without the permission or knowledge of a secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The White House had threatened to veto the bill unless it immunized companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. from wiretapping lawsuits.

Numerous lawmakers had spoken out strongly against the no-warrants eavesdropping on Americans, but the Senate voted its approval after rejecting amendments that would have watered down, delayed or stripped away the immunity provision.

Just under a third of the Senate, including Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, supported an amendment that would have stripped immunity from the bill. They were defeated on a 66-32 vote. Republican rival John McCain did not attend the vote.

Obama ended up voting for the final bill, as did Specter.

Beyond immunity, the new surveillance bill also sets new rules for government eavesdropping.

Some of them would tighten the reins on current government surveillance activities, but others would loosen them compared with a law passed 30 years ago.