Temporary Success in the SenateBy Senator Russ Feingold
Talking Points Memo As you all know by now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided last night to pull the deeply flawed Intelligence Committee FISA bill from the floor. He announced that we would return to the bill in January. Senator Chris Dodd did a great job controlling the floor for much of yesterday, insisting on full debate of the motion to proceed after cloture was invoked. We made it clear that we will do everything we can to stop this bad bill from being jammed through. Other Senators, including Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Ron Wyden, Sherrod Brown, and Ben Cardin, eloquently laid out many of the problems with this bill. And even Senators who supported the bill in the Intelligence Committee, such as Sheldon Whitehouse and Dianne Feinstein, made valuable contributions to the debate. One issue that was given a good airing yesterday is that the Senate is being asked to legislate in the dark, particularly on the immunity issue. Only members of the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees have been permitted to learn about the warrantless wiretapping program in enough detail to make an informed decision about whether retroactive immunity is warranted. To his credit, Senator Reid has now called on the White House to make information available to all Senators who are being asked to vote on this crucial question. But it is important not to let the excitement of yesterday’s success obscure the really difficult challenge ahead. The Senate will once again take up FISA legislation in January. Our efforts need to be focused not only on stripping out the immunity provision, but also on incorporating greater protections for the privacy of innocent Americans. We now have more time to convince the Senate of several key points:
The grassroots involvement on this issue has been nothing short of amazing. I was pleased to be part of yesterday’s success, but we have earned only a temporary respite. We must not squander the extra time we’ve been given. We must keep the pressure on and fight back against the administration’s fear-mongering. The Senate made a mistake when it failed to protect the rights and freedoms of the American people in the Patriot Act in 2001 and again during the reauthorization of that law two years ago. It compounded those mistakes many times over in the so-called Protect America Act. It is time to stop giving in to an administration that does not respect the rule of law. |