Dems Postpone Unveiling Of Big FISA Bill Until Next Week
Amid signs that progressives in the House are worried about the direction being taken by the House Dem leadership on controversial new FISA legislation, Dems have postponed the release of the bill out of committee until next week.
The postponement is kind of a big deal, because many were anxiously anticipating the release of the legislation, which promises to be one of the most contentious issues on Capitol Hill in coming days.
The postponement -- first reported by The Huffington Post -- was confirmed to me by Stacey Bernards, the press secretary to Dem House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. He was scheduled to unveil the bill -- a product of the judiciary and intelligence committees -- this afternoon, but now it looks like it won't be unveiled until next week. "The bill's not ready," Bernards tells us.
The FISA legislation promises to be a contentious issue, because many progressives and Democrats were unhappy with the version of the legislation that was passed in August, altering the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, because they saw it as granting far too much power to the administration and far too little in the way of civil liberties protections.
Now that the legislation is up for renewal, many progressives in the House are going to demand that the bill be much tougher this time.
The dynamic that's unfolding right now among Dems is this: Progressives say that the House leadership has been debating what approach to take to the legislation behind closed doors, and some progressive members are nervous that they will be shut out of the decisionmaking over the bill. But sources within the leadership insist that this isn't the case and that in fact the two relevant committees are driving the process.
Last night House progressives, as a way to pressure the leadership to hear their concerns right now, released a list of their demands for the legislation (you can read it below).
"We got involved too late last time," says a top aide to a leading House progressive. "We want to lay out our position before this starts in earnest."
The political goal of the progressives is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will head into negotiations with the White House with both a stronger bill and with a much stronger sense that there's a good deal of House support for a bill that contains much tougher civil liberties protections. "We want to strengthen her hand -- to enable her to go into negotiations with the White House while pointing to broad opposition within her own party to anything that weakens civil liberties," the aide says.
Adding to the concerns of progressives is the fact that no one outside leadership and the relevant committees is sure of the legislative specifics of what the committees are putting together. The American Civil Liberties Union has has said that it hasn't been briefed on the bill. It's unclear whether the postponement was due to the concerns of the ACLU and House progressives.
Meanwhile, some on the left have speculated that Hoyer is pushing for a weaker bill, but sources close to Hoyer insist that this isn't the case. One Hoyer source says that the committees are driving the legislation and that he hadn't even been briefed on its specifics until recently.
The source also claims that Hoyer's main goal is to get the House to pass a bill before the Senate comes out with a more moderate bill that will make it tougher politically for the House to do something significantly stronger. But we won't really know for sure exactly what Hoyer, the rest of the leadership, and the committees have in mind until we see the final product.
That's where things stand now. Expect a bill next week. Meanwhile, the progressive list of demands of the legislation is below:
We, Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, fully recognizing we live in a dangerous world but proud of, and deeply committed to, the values that have made the United States an exemplar for the world, affirm the following principles to guide consideration over the debate regarding surveillance of foreign intelligence. We hold that these principles represent the pillars by which America gives no quarter to terrorists who would do our country harm, while at the same time ensuring fidelity to the distinctively American commitment to the rule of law, the dignity of the individual, and separation of powers.1. It should be the policy of the United States that the objective of any authorized program of foreign intelligence surveillance must be to ensure that American citizens and persons in America are secure in their persons, papers, and effects, but makes terrorists throughout the world feel insecure.
2. The best way to achieve these twin goals is to follow the rule of law. And the exclusive law to follow with respect to authorizing foreign surveillance gathering on U.S. soil is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). As initially enacted by Congress, the exclusivity of FISA was unambiguous. Legislation must reiterate current law that FISA is the exclusive means to authorize foreign surveillance gathering on U.S. soil.
3. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) should be modernized to accommodate new technologies and to make clear that foreign to foreign communications are not subject to the FISA, even though modern technology enables that communication to be routed through the United States.
4. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) is indispensable and must play a meaningful role in ensuring compliance with the law. This oversight should include, where possible, regular judicial approval and review of surveillance, of whose communications will be collected, of how it will be gathered, and of how content and other data in communications to and from the United States will be handled.
5. Congress must have regular access to information about how many U.S. communications are being collected and the authority to require court orders when it becomes clear that a certain program or surveillance of a target is scooping up communications of U.S. persons.
6. Once the government has reason to believe that a specific account, person or facility will have contact with someone in the United States, the government should be required to return to the FISC to obtain a court order for continued surveillance. Reliance on the FISC will help ensure the privacy of U.S. persons' communications.
7. Congress should not grant amnesty to any telecommunications company or to any other entity or individual for helping the NSA spy illegally on innocent Americans. The availability of amnesty will have the unintended consequence of encouraging telecommunications companies to comply with, rather than contest, illegal requests to spy on Americans.
8. Authorization to conduct foreign surveillance gathering on U.S. soil must never be made permanent. The threats to America’s security and the liberties of its people will change over time and require constant vigilance by the people’s representatives in Congress.
Comments (32)
MarcNYC wrote on October 5, 2007 12:35 PM:Maybe someone should remind the House Leadership of what Ben Franklin once said:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
A lesson that "Leadership" seems to have forgotten.
mo wrote on October 5, 2007 12:52 PM:Greg... I love your articles... and I try not to be pedantic... but last time I checked (and despite the way he tends to act) Steny Hoyer is NOT the -->GOP
peace love and granola.
mo
sorry.. message above was bizarrely truncated....... should have read...
...Steny Hoyer is NOT the GOP House Majority Leader... He's a Dem...
mo
"...Steny Hoyer is NOT the GOP House Majority Leader... He's a Dem..."
... so sure about that?...
OK, so if it's true that the committees are driving the legislation, then What committees are these and what Democrats sit on them?
Dennis wrote on October 5, 2007 1:01 PM:Today the Democrats caved in to the Republicans regarding the report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Phase II on the behavior of the White House leading up to the attack on Iraq.
Indeed, cave in to the Republicans seems to be the only thing the Democrats are good at doing.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
thanks for the correction re Hoyer being a Dem. you don't have to believe me, but I did in fact know that... :)
Candyce wrote on October 5, 2007 1:17 PM:Greg, I think you actually had it right the first time. At the very least, a very easy mistake.
moondancer wrote on October 5, 2007 1:17 PM:I hope to see the dem noise machine whipping up support for this important bill. Oh yeah, thats the other guys.
Sherlock wrote on October 5, 2007 1:20 PM:Remember what Bush has said many, many, many times; the terrorists hate us for our freedoms. The unspoken corollary is that if we have less freedom, they will hate us less, and therefore attack us less; therefore anyone who defends our freedom, such as any Democrat, is in fact empowering the enemy. This is insideous by itself, but combine it with the notion that "it would be easier if this was a dictatorship, and I was the Dictator", and you can see just how desperate a situation we're in.
howard wrote on October 5, 2007 1:28 PM:i've made the point in the past that you can't ask the leadership to be significantly more aggressive than the caucus, so anything that stiffens the spine of the caucus is a good thing.
i've noted before that you can't expect the leadership to be significantly more aggressive than the caucus, so anything that demonstrates a potential stiffening of the caucus spine is a good thing....
bjobotts wrote on October 5, 2007 1:35 PM:Hoyer is not to be trusted because what he considers to be a strong stance can actually be very weak because his standards are weak to begin with.
What I find amazing is that with a republican controlled congress lobbyists often wrote the language of bills to be presented and here the Dems haven't even briefed the ACLU or gotten their input on the language of the measure to be proposed. Hopefully this delay while in committee will allow time to gather input from all interested parties.
PLEASE, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. THAT PICTURE OF PELOSI WITH RHAM EMMANUELLE IN THE BACKGROUND IS ENOUGH TO MAKE ME GAG TO THE POINT OF THROWING UP, AND I'M A DEMOCRAT. PLEASE DON'T PUT THEIR PICTURES UP LIKE THAT, ESPECIALLY TOGETHER...AT LEAST NOT WITHOUT A WARNING THAT IT MAY CAUSE NAUSEA.
SeeDee wrote on October 5, 2007 1:43 PM:On any issue relative to the Iraq War, the Bush fictional 'war on terror' and the infringement of liberties and personal freedoms demanded by 'W' to further his agenda of 'centralized executive power' (dictatorship), Steny Hoyer has proven by his past actions and words that he is not to be trusted to lead ANY opposition to the GOP cabal.
Hoyer is a first-rate example of how a disgusting 'DINO' operates.
Rionn Fears Malechem wrote on October 5, 2007 1:45 PM:Well, the Hoyer GOP gaffe is funny because you were dumping on CNN for a similar error earlier.
po wrote on October 5, 2007 1:49 PM:And if they can't agree on those basic principles, many stemming straight from the Constitution itself, then no bill should be voted on. Let the August fiasco expire in February and we can go back to what we all know was both lawful and working if only the analysts had connected the dots.
Dee Illuminati wrote on October 5, 2007 1:59 PM:Somebody "GETS IT" and has closed the door of abuse with those two clauses, now the question is what to do about NSL's? How do we monitor those items if they are abused?
I suggest that they be reviewed by the FISC and that a database be kept of individuals whom were monitored with a disposition schedule of notification of the targeted individuals by the court if there is 'a mistake.'
6. Once the government has reason to believe that a specific account, person or facility will have contact with someone in the United States, the government should be required to return to the FISC to obtain a court order for continued surveillance. Reliance on the FISC will help ensure the privacy of U.S. persons' communications.
7. Congress should not grant amnesty to any telecommunications company or to any other entity or individual for helping the NSA spy illegally on innocent Americans. The availability of amnesty will have the unintended consequence of encouraging telecommunications companies to comply with, rather than contest, illegal requests to spy on Americans.
linda wrote on October 5, 2007 1:59 PM:then hoyer should stop acting like one...
Anonymous wrote on October 5, 2007 2:01 PM:to: "po"
Good point!
And if they can't agree on those basic principles, many stemming straight from the Constitution itself, then no bill should be voted on. Let the August fiasco expire in February and we can go back to what we all know was both lawful and working if only the analysts had connected the dots.
onceler wrote on October 5, 2007 2:15 PM:Is Steny Hoyer even really a Democrat? God him and Rahm Emanuel are such freakin idiots. Nobody in the country supports warrantless wiretapping, why are these clowns falling over themselves to give cover to Bush's fascistic lawlessness? Boggles the mind.
MarcNYC wrote on October 5, 2007 2:17 PM:The problem is that MUST get done before Thanksgiving vacation. If it is not, the Decider will start calling the Dems nasty names, and they will pass whatever piece of crap the administration puts in front of them so that they can go home for vacation.
po wrote on October 5, 2007 2:59 PM:DC is wonderful in the Fall. I say let them all stay in DC over the holiday season. This way there are no recess appointment and all of the bad names can be called face to face if desired (of course, that would require the Decider to decide to stay in DC too, how likely is that). Imagine all of the important legislation that could be worked out under such a scenario. Besides, it's not like Congress has done anything this year anyway.
oleeb wrote on October 5, 2007 3:20 PM:Progressives are unhappy? Next version to be much tougher?
What kind of bullshit are even the progressives pulling here? What they need to do is repeal every part of of the recently enacted FISA legislation: no more, no less. From what I've read,only a fraction of the legislation was needed. I'm glad to see the liberals standing their ground, but they need to be ferocious and it seems as though they are that militant about it.
Joe Monster wrote on October 5, 2007 3:37 PM:MarcNYC makes an important point. Dems respond to heat, but not the kind coming from voters. The liberal media can be expected to faithfully pursue the policy goals of that nutty sect in the Republican Party, and Americans are all too busy sucking it up to question it.
The only way to start playing offense is to mire the Administration in investigations, deliberately and openly, to consume their operating budget and staff hours.
What does is say about your confidence in a bill when you release it on Friday afternoon? Isn't Friday the day you release news in the hopes that it would be buried?
the headline here seemed like a GOP "spin doctor" job, opposed to here....
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_09_30_archive.html#949376751818715613
nuQler ostrich wrote on October 5, 2007 6:25 PM:I like that the CPC stood up for the 4th amendment. I like it.
So, when I has some free time today, I started calling all their offices, alphabetically, and saying thank you.
A majority were surprised and reacted that someone was actually calling not to bitch them out, but to offer support.
I only got through the "K"s and I will start over on Monday and call the others that didn't get the call today.
toll free Capitol switchboard
1-800-459-1887
There are 72 members, and everybody who loves the Constitution should call and offer support.
I told them the feel free to defend the rest of the Constitution too, and that there is support for them out here.
Publius Ignoramus wrote on October 5, 2007 8:25 PM:Isn't this move by the progressives significant if not historical?
Can someone point out a similar, coordinated, substantial, and yes, effective confrontation with the leadership within recent memory, over a more critical issue?
In otherwords, is this not the political equivalent of seismic activity?
I feel like the freshmen and the veteran progressives have been deferential to the DNC leadership since January .....till today.
I'm curious to know if Greg has any sense of the underlying current to this development.
TM wrote on October 5, 2007 8:40 PM:Honestly, the entire way the leadership has dropped the ball on all these issues including the August 5second vacation war with Bush is making me think dems are no different than the GOP.
The Oracle wrote on October 6, 2007 3:46 AM:To keep everyone honest, maybe the FISA court should be expanded to twice the size it is at present, with the Bush appointees remaining in place, but the opposition (relative to which party controls the White House at the time) getting to select U.S. federal judges to fill the other FISA court slots.
This might stop what has occurred under the corrupt Bush administration from happening again, in which the criminals in the Bush administration treated the FISA court just as they've treated Senate and House intelligence committees, where only a few "select" senators and representatives (loyal Bushies primarily) were allowed to see only the intelligence the corrupt Bush administration wanted them to see, while hiding the most damning information about Bush criminality from their purview.
Having half the FISA court Republican appointed and the other half Democratic appointed, no matter who's in the White House, might just stop this anti-American practice.
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