Bush bypasses Bond, talks to Dems on FISA

The Bush administration is talking directly with Democrats over rewriting the nation’s surveillance laws and leaving the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee out of the debate. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said that negotiations were occurring without Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO). Chairman Rockefeller said that Sen Bond had made the talks more difficult by insisting he have private negotiations with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a move Rockefeller called a “non-starter.” The statements speak to the growing tensions over the rewrite of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). And the exchange comes as the two men prepare to trade barbs Thursday over reports outlining intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. A temporary law to authorize a warrantless wiretapping program expired in February, and Republicans have pressured Democrats to pass a sweeping White House-backed FISA overhaul in its place. But Democrats have refused to budge, objecting mainly to the insistence of the White House that the bill include retroactive liability protections for telephone companies that participated in the administration’s wiretapping program. Democrats say such legal protections should not be handed out if the administration and companies were abiding by the law. Republicans say without the protections, companies will not be willing to help protect the country from terrorist attacks.
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