Surveillance Vote Today

Senators are meeting at 10 a.m. today to vote on amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which has some telecommunication companies stuck between a rock and a very hard place.

FISA, which prohibits unauthorized electronic surveillance, has been under debate for some time as lawmakers try to decide, among other things, whether to offer retroactive legal immunity to telecom companies being sued for their alleged cooperation with the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretap program. Various amendments have been brought up, including one by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would let a court decide whether the firms believed they were acting legally and under "objectively reasonable" "good faith" when they shared e-mails or phone conversations with the government.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who, along with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has offered an amendment that would substitute the federal government as a defendant in pending lawsuits, said any "all or nothing" alternative amendments are "flawed." He also said many lawmakers haven't had enough access to classified administration documents regarding the program to even make a well-informed decision. "If we can't agree on this, then we really have taken our eye off our duties," he said Monday.

Many Republicans want the immunity and they want it fast, saying our national security may be at stake if companies and intelligence officials are held liable for their cooperation.

"The bottom line is, we just don't know what tomorrow will bring," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Monday. "Up to now, they've been willing to cooperate because they know how important this work is, so they do it patriotically," he said of the companies and officials involved.

He read letters from groups such as the National Troopers Coalition and National Sheriffs' Association, which support the immunity concept.

The Senate bill under debate offers immunity but the House version that passed does not. The current FISA extension expires at the end of this week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., last week filed a bill that would extend it another 15 days.

Eight amendments will be voted on in the Senate Tuesday. Reid has said he wants a final vote on the bill Thursday, then for Senate and House negotiators to huddle together quickly to work out the differences between their two bills before the law expires.

The White House has threatened to veto any bill that doesn't protect the telecom companies.