Projo Politics Blog

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted overwhelmingly tonight to expand the government’s spying powers and – in a long-sought victory for President Bush – to grant legal immunity to the telephone companies that helped him launch a new warrantless wiretapping program after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The 68-to-29 vote set up a clash with the House of Representatives, which had earlier passed a version of the surveillance bill that would leave the phone companies open to lawsuits and damage awards over their participation in the wiretaps.

The vote also opened a split among majority Democrats – including Rhode Island’s Senate delegation.

Joining a united Republican bloc in favor of the bill were 19 Democrats, most of whom are moderate to conservative on national security issues, or else – like Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse – are members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Mr. Bush called the Senate bill "a long-term foundation for our intelligence community to monitor the communications of foreign terrorists in ways that are timely and effective and that also protect the liberties of Americans.’’

But Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that by shielding the telephone companies from lawsuits, the Senate bill removed "the only viable accountability for the government’s illegal actions.’’ Leahy said the immunity was meant "to protect those in the administration who broke the law.’’

Whitehouse joined in losing efforts to kill or weaken the language immunizing telephone companies from lawsuits over their role in the warrantless eavesdropping. But he later joined the bipartisan majority that passed the overall surveillance bill, keeping intact the "telecom’’ protection that Mr. Bush has demanded as a condition of signing the measure into law.

Whitehouse said he voted for the final bill because it included his provision to safeguard the privacy of Americans abroad whose communications are intercepted during surveillance of suspected terrorists.

Rhode Island's Jack Reed was among 28 Democrats, including most of the party’s Senate leadership, who voted against the bill.

-- John E. Mulligan, Journal Washington bureau

 

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