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Feb. 5, 2008 – 7:59 p.m.

Senate GOP Will Not Move on FISA Until

Agreement on Stimulus Procedures
By Tim Starks, CQ Staff

Legislation to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act remained stalled in

the Senate Tuesday, held hostage by a partisan clash over procedures for
consideration of an unrelated economic stimulus package.
A frustrated Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., complained that Republicans were
blocking his efforts to schedule votes on proposed amendments to the bill (S 2248).
He questioned Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ’s commitment to the legislation,
saying Republicans have declined to allow FISA to move forward.
“The Orwellian Bush administration has now slopped over into the Senate, and now
the Republican leader is now becoming Orwellian himself,” Reid said. “They want to
stall the FISA legislation as long as they can, and they’ve done a pretty good job,
because they want this legislation to be completed at the last minute, to give the
House and the Senate conferees little time to work on this.”
A temporary law (PL 110-55) that expanded the executive branch’s spying powers
under FISA (PL 95-511) is currently set to expire Feb. 16.
McConnell, R-Ky., said Senate Republicans would not agree to move forward on the
FISA rewrite until Reid gave them a chance to offer amendments to the economic
stimulus bill (HR 5140) that also awaits Senate action.
“These two issues are interconnected in terms of how we can fairly go forward,”
McConnell said. “As soon as we have an understanding about how we go forward on
the stimulus package, then I’m confident we’ll make progress on this as well.”
McConnell said both bills would eventually “pass on a strong bipartisan basis.”
There was a slight crack in the procedural impasse on Tuesday afternoon when
McConnell agreed to a Reid request to begin debate on several FISA amendments.
Under the agreement, the time used to debate the FISA amendments would count
against the time to be allotted to opening debate on the separate stimulus package.
That agreement would allow the Senate to hold a quick series of votes on FISA
amendments once the current procedural snarl is resolved.
The White House insisted that Congress complete the more lasting overhaul by Feb.
16, the result of a 15-day extension (PL 110-182) Bush signed into law Jan. 31.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino noted that Congress has been wrangling
about new guidelines for electronic surveillance for about 18 months.
“Legislating by extension for our intelligence community is no way to run a
counterintelligence program. So we think Feb. 15 is a hard and fast deadline that
they need to meet,” Perino said, noting the last day Congress could act.
At the same time, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell and Attorney
General Michael B. Mukasey sent a letter to the Senate saying they would urge Bush
to veto any legislation that does not include retroactive legal immunity for
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telecommunications companies being sued for their alleged role in the

administration’s warrantless surveillance program.
The Senate bill includes such immunity provisions, but a House-passed FISA bill (HR
3773) does not.
The threat drew a sharp reaction from Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. “The president’s
insistence on immunity as a precondition for any FISA reform is yet another example
of his contempt for honest dialogue and for the rule of law,” he said in a statement.

Kathleen Hunter contributed to this story