FISA
Okay, I think I've finally figured out what happened in the Senate yesterday on the FISA bill. I had gotten confused because there were two different votes that went 48-45.
The first vote was on cloture. The Republicans wanted to shut off debate on the Intelligence Committee's (bad) version of the FISA bill that might have improved it (though the likelihood of passage of any significant improvements through debate and amendment was low). The Thuglicans needed 60 votes for cloture, and failed to get it, the vote being 48-45. Three Dems voted with the Thuglicans and Arlen Specter voted with the Dems.
At that point, because a recess is coming up, the Dems proposed an emergency 30-day extension of the current (relatively bad, but not as bad as the permanent intelligence committee version with immunity for the telecoms) FISA law that was passed under similar circumstances six months ago. Bush had threatened to veto the 30-day extension (in order to force passage of the telecom immunity version of the bill). Republicans voted to block the 30-day extension and Democrats voted in favor of it. Once again, the vote was 48-45. Once again, 60 votes were needed, so the extension failed.
It is expected that the House will vote a 30-day extension in their session today and then adjourn for the recess. That means the Senate can bring the 30-day extension back up tomorrow for another vote. It seems likely the Thuglicans will block the extension once again. That will, in effect, kill the 30-day extension move since the House will be in recess*.
Hence, on Friday, Feb. 1, the current FISA Act will expire and be replaced by the old version that was in effect (except for the fact that Bush ignored it) throughout most of Bush's presidency. With only one exception, the old version was perfectly fine**. The one exception is that it does not permit interception of foreign to foreign communications that happen to pass through the US networks on their way. My guess is that there are even ways to deal with that under the old FISA act by getting warrants after the fact. So this is a really great result for the time being.
Nevertheless, the Bushies are now going to say that the Democrats have endangered the country by blocking the legislation needed to protect it. Of course, this is absurd since it was the Thuglicans themselves that blocked the legislation in order to get retroactive immunity for the telecom industry. However, the press simply doesn't seem interested in any of this (I haven't seen any decent reporting on it anywhere, much less in a prominent place), and almost certainly will mouth the Thuglican talking points whenever they can.
* (Footnote. My wife asks, "Why the hell are they going into recess? They just came off the Christmas recess. Obama says he wants the average American to have the same healthcare as those in Congress. Why doesn't he also call for them to have the same vacation package?)
**(Footnote. Actually in my opinion even the old old FISA Act gave too much spy power to the prez, but I appear to be a minority of one in that opinion.)
The first vote was on cloture. The Republicans wanted to shut off debate on the Intelligence Committee's (bad) version of the FISA bill that might have improved it (though the likelihood of passage of any significant improvements through debate and amendment was low). The Thuglicans needed 60 votes for cloture, and failed to get it, the vote being 48-45. Three Dems voted with the Thuglicans and Arlen Specter voted with the Dems.
At that point, because a recess is coming up, the Dems proposed an emergency 30-day extension of the current (relatively bad, but not as bad as the permanent intelligence committee version with immunity for the telecoms) FISA law that was passed under similar circumstances six months ago. Bush had threatened to veto the 30-day extension (in order to force passage of the telecom immunity version of the bill). Republicans voted to block the 30-day extension and Democrats voted in favor of it. Once again, the vote was 48-45. Once again, 60 votes were needed, so the extension failed.
It is expected that the House will vote a 30-day extension in their session today and then adjourn for the recess. That means the Senate can bring the 30-day extension back up tomorrow for another vote. It seems likely the Thuglicans will block the extension once again. That will, in effect, kill the 30-day extension move since the House will be in recess*.
Hence, on Friday, Feb. 1, the current FISA Act will expire and be replaced by the old version that was in effect (except for the fact that Bush ignored it) throughout most of Bush's presidency. With only one exception, the old version was perfectly fine**. The one exception is that it does not permit interception of foreign to foreign communications that happen to pass through the US networks on their way. My guess is that there are even ways to deal with that under the old FISA act by getting warrants after the fact. So this is a really great result for the time being.
Nevertheless, the Bushies are now going to say that the Democrats have endangered the country by blocking the legislation needed to protect it. Of course, this is absurd since it was the Thuglicans themselves that blocked the legislation in order to get retroactive immunity for the telecom industry. However, the press simply doesn't seem interested in any of this (I haven't seen any decent reporting on it anywhere, much less in a prominent place), and almost certainly will mouth the Thuglican talking points whenever they can.
* (Footnote. My wife asks, "Why the hell are they going into recess? They just came off the Christmas recess. Obama says he wants the average American to have the same healthcare as those in Congress. Why doesn't he also call for them to have the same vacation package?)
**(Footnote. Actually in my opinion even the old old FISA Act gave too much spy power to the prez, but I appear to be a minority of one in that opinion.)
posted by walldon | 9:38 AM
1 Comments:
"Old" FISA remains in place to allow aggressive surveillance consistent with the Constitution. These are amendments that aren't really necessary.
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