GOP walks out after House rejects 21-day wiretap extension (updated)

Update

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and fellow Republicans walked out of the House of Representatives midsession earlier today to protest the Democratic leadership's refusal to schedule an immediate vote on the Senate bill. A statement issued by the White House press secretary contended that the House's failure to act "damages our national security," though as noted below, the president had rejected an offer to further extend the Protect America Act for three weeks while the House and Senate bills were brought into accord, pledging to veto any such legislation.

Original story

The Bush administration and the House of Representatives are locked into a game of chicken over surveillance reform, and the White House has just torn off its steering wheel.

Earlier this week, the Senate passed White House-approved legislation that would expand intelligence agencies' power to acquire communications between Americans and persons overseas without warrants. It would also grant telecom firms immunity from civil suits stemming from their cooperation with the program of warrantless wiretaps approved by President George W. Bush shortly after September 11, 2001. The new law is meant to replace the Protect America Act, a temporary stopgap passed hastily in August and due to expire at the end of this week. House Democrats sought a 21-day extension of the current law in order to provide time to reconcile their own bill with the language approved by the Senate, but under a presidential veto threat, that extension was defeated on Wednesday.

"There's no reason why Republicans and Democrats in the House cannot pass the Senate bill immediately," President Bush told reporters Wednesday. "The House's failure to pass the bipartisan Senate bill would jeopardize the security of our citizens." The House actually did pass its own legislation, the RESTORE Act, back in October, but it lacked the grant of amnesty for telecom companies, and contained a variety of oversight provisions the White House regards as excessively burdensome.

House Republicans are also playing hardball, hoping to force Democrats to either deliver a bill that meets White House specifications or face accusations of weakening national security. "Given no other option," read an e-mail sent to Republican Hill staffers from the office of the minority whip, "Republicans will not allow any legislation to be considered today until the Democrats bring the Senate's bill to the floor."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has signaled that she may be prepared to face down the threat. "Even if the Protect America Act expires later this week," Pelosi said in a statement, "the American people can be confident that our country remains safe and strong. Every order entered under the law can remain in effect for 12 months from the date it was issued." Since many observers believe that the surveillance authorizations under the PAA are likely to be couched in quite broad terms, it is likely that intelligence agencies will be able to continue most surveillance without further authorization even if the bill does lapse. The ACLU has urged Congress to simply allow the PAA to expire.

The longer-term effects of allowing the PAA to expire remain unclear. The law was passed after a secret FISA court ruling purportedly required intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before intercepting any communications passing through US switches, even those between two overseas parties, acquisition of which had traditionally been unrestricted. But the ruling itself remains secret, as the FISA court has rebuffed a request by the ACLU to release a redacted version of the decision. And many analysts familiar with the law simply do not find the characterization of the ruling that has been offered publicly credible. Among the questions that have been raised about its contents: if this ruling delivered such a crippling blow to intelligence acquisition, why has the administration declined to appeal it?

Many speculate that the actual intent of the new legislation is to prevent disclosure of information about the extrajudicial wiretap program by cutting short civil suits that have been brought against complicit telecoms, and to license broad, "vacuum-cleaner" style acquisition of huge swaths of telecom traffic.

Original here