MICHELE NORRIS, host:
Also on Capitol Hill today, the Senate Intelligence Committee gathered behind closed doors, working to rewrite the law that governs domestic spying. Committee aides say Republicans and Democrats are close to agreement on new legislation that would tighten restraints on the current surveillance program. But some key senators say restraints should be even tighter. In the House, leaders are scrambling to recover after their version of an eavesdropping bill was derailed.
Here's NPR's Mary Louise Kelly.
MARY LOUISE KELLY: Even before senators on the Intelligence Committee got started today, grumbling about their efforts to update, the government's wiretapping authorities was already well underway. Democrat Chris Dodd announced he's placing a hold on the legislation. In an e-mail, Dodd writes, I said that I would do everything I could to stop this bill from passing, and I have.
Meanwhile, over at that Senate Judiciary hearing this morning, another Democrat, Chairman Patrick Leahy, said he thinks what's happening is the Bush administration has forced his Senate colleagues to buckle.
Senator PATRICK LEAHY (Democrat, Vermont; Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee): The fact that they're bringing so much pressure on the Intelligence Committee press us to believe the Intelligence Committee is about to cave on this, and bringing pressure on this committee to immunize past illegal conduct because they know that it was illegal conduct.
KELLY: One of the most controversial aspects of the Senate's efforts to rewrite what's known as FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is the question of whether private phone carriers should receive immunity for any cooperation they offered to the government's domestic eavesdropping program. The Intelligence Committee's version does grant immunity, but the bill must also win the support of Senator Leahy's committee. And both he and ranking Republican Arlen Specter say they're not ready to go along.
Specter says he would consider immunity if he knew exactly how the eavesdropping program works.
Senator ARLEN SPECTER (Republican, Pennsylvania): But they want us to vote for a pig in a poke. And it's really outlandish to ask us to vote for a program or an immunity that we don't know what it does.
KELLY: The Intelligence Committee's bill would increase the role of the secret foreign surveillance court in overseeing domestic spying, and it would include a six-year sunset when the bill would expire, allowing Congress to gauge how the new authorities are working out. Critics of the bill say those are improvements, but that the overall bill still represents a wider trend of Congress, to use Senator Leahy's word, caving to the White House.
Ms. CAROLINE FREDRICKSON (Director, American Civil Liberties Union): The Democrats seem constantly worried. Every time the president mentions the word terrorism, they fall down and roll over.
KELLY: Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Ms. FREDRICKSON: Unfortunately, it seems as if the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Senator Rockefeller, has worked hand in glove with President Bush to give him all of the power that he's been seeking, that he's been asserting to engage any eavesdropping on Americans without a warrant.
KELLY: Senator Jay Rockefeller doesn't see things that way. His aides say the bill would protect civil liberties and strengthen national security.
Democrat Jane Harman, a key player on the House side, says she's still poring over the Senate version, but she hopes the Senate will avoid succumbing to the political squabbling that derailed the House FISA bill.
Representative JANE HARMAN (Democrat, California): My view is that bipartisanship is the best way to start security bills. And I think the Senate is heeding those lessons as it starts to move FISA reform today.
KELLY: As for the House bill scuttled yesterday by Republican resistance, House leaders may try again next week. Or, they may wait to see how things play out in the Senate.
Mary Louise Kelly, NPR News, Washington.
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