Feingold, Dodd planning filibuster of wiretap bill

By David Edwards and Nick Juliano
In a last-ditch attempt to fix a surveillance bill critics say would essentially legalize President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) have promised to filibuster the bill as long as it offers telecommunications companies retroactive immunity.

“This is a deeply flawed bill, which does nothing more than offer retroactive immunity by another name. We strongly urge our colleagues to reject this so-called ‘compromise’ legislation and oppose any efforts to consider this bill in its current form. We will oppose efforts to end debate on this bill as long as it provides retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies that may have participated in the President’s warrantless wiretapping program, and as long as it fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans,” the senators said in a joint statement Tuesday.

“If the Senate does proceed to this legislation, our immediate response will be to offer an amendment that strips the retroactive immunity provision out of the bill. We hope our colleagues will join us in supporting Americans’ civil liberties by opposing retroactive immunity and rejecting this so-called ‘compromise’ legislation.”

A Dodd-led filibuster in February attracted just 29 supporters, short of the 41 necessary to keep a bill from coming to a vote. Speaking in Washington Monday, Feingold was pessimistic about their chances this time around.

Speaking on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now radio program Tuesday, Feingold reiterated his planned efforts.

“We are going to resist this bill. We are going to make sure that the procedural votes are gone through. In other words, a filibuster is requiring 60 votes to proceed to the bill, 60 votes to get cloture on the legislation. We will also, Sen. Dodd and I and others will be taking some time to talk about this on the floor,” he said. “We’re not just going to let it be rubber-stamped.”

Goodman asked, specifically if he would filibuster.

“That’s what I just described,” Feingold said.

UPDATE: Senator Chris Dodd delivered prepared remarks in opposition to the FISA bill. Full text of the speech is available here.

This video is from Link TV’s Democracy Now!, broadcast June 24, 2008.

Original here