Senate GOP offers FISA compromise to House Democrats

Senate Republicans have given House Majority Leader Hoyer a proposal for rewriting the nation's surveillance laws that would have a secret court determine whether telecommunications firms should be immune from lawsuits arising from their role in the Bush administration's warrantless domestic spying activities.

Comment on this article in The Forum.The proposal is in response to language Hoyer gave Senate Republicans last week, and is the latest in a series of exchanges between House and Senate lawmakers to break an impasse over changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"It's the best deal I think we can give," said Senate Intelligence ranking member Christopher (Kit) Bond, a chief architect of the proposal.

Bond cautioned that the proposal does not necessarily represent the position of the White House.

Hoyer's office was reviewing the proposal late Wednesday and had not responded to Bond by presstime.

Bond confirmed that the proposal calls for having the secret FISA court decide whether the lawsuits against the telecommunications companies should be dismissed.

That represents a major shift for Republicans, who for months have resisted having court review of the lawsuits. Bond explained that the court review could be done without compromising classified information.

Hoyer had proposed the lawsuits be considered in federal district court, according to sources.

The FISA court would be limited in what kind of review it could conduct, sources said.

Some Democrats and civil liberties groups fear the review would be so limited that the FISA court would be obligated to grant immunity to the telecoms.

They worry the court will only be allowed to review written orders from the Bush administration asserting that the warrantless surveillance program, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, was legal, rather than being allowed to review evidence from the lawsuits and give plaintiffs a fair hearing.

In another major shift, the Senate Republican proposal would require the FISA court to authorize broad surveillance programs before spying could begin, Bond confirmed.

The so-called programmatic authorizations would apply to groups of terrorists, and is similar to language House Democrats put in a FISA overhaul bill that passed the House in March.

Republicans are willing to go along with the concept of programmatic authorizations in exchange for a limited FISA court review that would likely end up giving the telecoms legal immunity.

"The question is do we get the immunity that we need? It's classic horse trading," a source said.

Lawmakers hope to strike a final deal on FISA by the end of next week, but months of negotiations have appeared to heighten tensions between Bond and Senate Intelligence Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller.

On Wednesday, Rockefeller discounted Bond's role in the negotiations, declaring: "Senator Bond is really not a serious part of these negotiations."

House and Senate aides from both parties say Bond has been a linchpin in the negotiations.

Nonetheless, Democratic aides expressed frustration that Bond and the White House might not agree on the latest proposal.

"I don't know [if] Kit Bond is driving the train here," an aide said. "The administration is still driving the train. There is a belief we may be able to reach a deal with them [administration officials], but Senate Republicans may torpedo it."

House Democratic leaders also must deal with internal differences in their Caucus.

The Blue Dog Coalition, for example, wants a deal on FISA by Memorial Day and is threatening to help force a vote in the House on a Senate-passed FISA bill that would immunize the telecoms from lawsuits.

But it appears the Blue Dogs will not risk offending House Speaker Pelosi by joining a GOP discharge petition seeking a vote on the Senate bill. Instead, sources indicated they are more likely to offer a discharge petition to avoid giving direct support to the Republican effort.