Bush Agrees To Domestic Spying Oversight Bill

POSTED: 1:21 pm EDT July 13, 2006
UPDATED: 2:26 pm EDT July 13, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The White House has agreed to support a bill that could add a new layer of judicial oversight to the Bush administration's controversial eavesdropping program, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday.
The legislation would authorize the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to review the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's most high-profile monitoring operations, said the Pennsylvania Republican.
"You have here a recognition by the president that he does not have a blank check," Specter told his committee.
Since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, the NSA has been eavesdropping on the international calls and e-mails of people inside the United States when terrorism is suspected. Breaking with historic norms, the president authorized the actions without a court warrant.
The disclosure of the program in December sparked outrage among Democrats and civil liberties advocates who said Bush overstepped his authority as president.
Specter said the legislation, which has not yet been made public, was the result of "tortuous" negotiations with the White House since June.
"If the bill is not changed, the president will submit the Terrorist Surveillance Program to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," Specter said. "That is the president's commitment."
It wasn't immediately clear how strong or enduring the judicial oversight would be.
An administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the bill's language gives the president the option of submitting the program to the intelligence court, rather than making the review a requirement.
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