In August, Congress quickly passed legislation that gave yet more power to the Executive Branch. The Protect America Act is a warrantless eavesdropping bill that expands the power of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It was passed just before summer recess: by the Senate on August 3 (Roll Call 309), and by the House on August 4 (Roll Call 836). George Bush then signed the bill into law on Sunday, August 5.
The Protect America Act gives the federal government the authority to monitor American citizens' phone conversations and e-mails, providing they are corresponding with persons "reasonably believed to be located outside the United States." This bill, which was drafted mostly by the White House, was created in response to the 2005 scandal where President Bush was ridiculed for authorizing the National Security Agency to conduct a secret wiretapping program targeted at persons within the United States. A federal court ruling found that program to be what most people already believed it to be: unconstitutional.
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Original post 09-20-07, UPDATE 01-28-08:
At the end of this week the so-called "Protect America Act" (PAA) will sunset out of existence. The House and Senate must both take action to either extend the deadline or replace the PAA with something else.
A cloture vote will be held in the Senate this afternoon. If they get 60 votes for cloture then debate will end and the Senate will move to a vote on the Senate Intelligence Committee's replacement for PAA. This is a bad bill. It has everything we don't want, including immunity for the telecom companies that collaborated with the Bush administration to violate the Bill of Rights.
That's the bad news. The good news is that there is strong opposition in the Senate to this version of the replacement bill. If we can support that opposition it may prove impossible for the Senate to get the 60 votes needed for cloture. If we can prevent cloture then the clock could run out, and PAA will sunset.
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