CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
Corrected June 23, 2008 – 6:05 a.m.

FISA Overhaul Set to Clear Senate
By Tim Starks, CQ Staff

Despite a deep divide among Democrats, the Senate is expected to clear legislation this week overhauling electronic surveillance rules that would grant President Bush much of what he has sought in a lengthy struggle with Congress.

With no senators threatening to hold up the bill (HR 6304), one of the last hopes for opponents faded June 20 when Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois announced he would vote for the legislation. Some civil liberties groups that oppose the measure had called on Obama to use his position in the party to derail it.

The bill to rewrite the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA, PL95-511) would almost certainly lead to the dismissal of lawsuits against telecommunications companies accused of aiding the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program. In the House, the measure passed with the support of 105 Democrats and 188 Republicans.

Senators agreed to take up the measure quickly and could clear it as early as Monday.

If the Senate clears the bill, it will give Bush much of what he wants in terms of spying powers and protection for the telecommunications companies.

“My director of national intelligence and the attorney general tells me that this is a good bill,â€