Senators Seek Hearings Before Amending FISA

By Jeralyn, Section War on Terror
Posted on Wed Sep 06, 2006 at 07:09:55 PM EST
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TChris wrote earlier today about why Congress should reject gutting FISA. A bipartisan group of senators has sent a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) urging him to hold additional hearings before taking action on legislation regarding the NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program. In their letter, Senators Craig, Durbin, Sununu, Feingold, Murkowski, and Salazar express serious concerns about Specter's bill to authorize the NSA program:

We believe that additional information is necessary before the Senate can responsibly consider legislation that would dramatically alter FISA and significantly expand the surveillance authority of the executive branch. ... We are concerned by provisions in the newest version of your bill that suggest that the executive branch could conduct wiretaps and physical searches without the court orders currently required by FISA, and that would amend FISA to authorize "program warrants." In addition, we believe that Congress needs far more information about the newest section of your bill, which contains numerous complex amendments to FISA that appear to rewrite that law significantly.

You can read the entire letter here. I also recommend the ACLU's statement today opposing amending FISA.

Today the American Civil Liberties Union urged the House of Representatives to reject attempts to erode Fourth Amendment protections under the guise of "updating" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), as the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security met to consider several proposals that would condone President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.

....The ACLU noted FISA has already undergone extensive "updating." When the Patriot Act was originally passed and then reauthorized, Congress amended FISA extensively, much to the detriment of the law's original civil liberties protections, although the requirement of warrants for wiretaps was left intact. However, despite the expanded powers at his disposal, inh 2001 President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to secretly wiretap Americans without a court order, in violation of FISA and the Fourth Amendment.

The White House has sinc