By Helen Fessenden, The Hill
Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee aim to have a new foreign-intelligence surveillance bill ready by early October, or at least early enough that the Bush administration will not be able to use the pre-recess ticking clock as a pressuring tactic this time around.
Panel Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) told The Hill on Friday that he expects a stand-alone bill that would seek to restore the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in authorizing warrants for foreign-intelligence gathering on U.S. persons. A draft will be written “over the next two weeks” with the input of Vice Chairman Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and other Republicans, he added.
Democrats have come under fire from civil liberties groups since Congress hastily passed a White House-backed bill shortly before the August recess that broadly expanded the administration’s foreign-intelligence surveillance powers on anyone within U.S. borders without a court warrant. The bill passed due to solid GOP backing as well as some Democratic defections.