Change & Experience

Hillary Clinton voted NO. Barack Obama sided with President Bush and voted YES. Hillary Clinton keeps her word.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that will overhaul rules on terrorist surveillance while giving the Bush administration a win it had sought for months: legal immunity for telecommuncations companies that helped in a secret eavesdropping program.

The Senate approved the changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on a 69-28 vote.

The action sends the bill the president's desk. The House approved the measure last month.

Earlier Wednesday, senators affirmed their intention to follow through on a promise to protect telecoms by turning back three amendments that would have altered the bill.

The long fight on Capitol Hill — lasting nearly a year — has centered on one question: whether to shield from civil lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on American phone and computer lines after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, without the permission or knowledge of a secret court created by FISA.

The lawsuits allege that the White House and the companies violated U.S. law by going around the FISA court to start the wiretaps. The court was created 30 years ago to prevent the government from abusing its surveillance powers for political purposes, as was done in the Vietnam War and Watergate eras. The court is meant to approve all wiretaps placed inside the U.S. for intelligence-gathering purposes. The law has been interpreted to include international e-mail records stored on servers inside the U.S.

Read more.

The sponsors and cosponsors to strike Title 2 (telecom immunity):
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SP05064:

Sponsor: Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [CT] (submitted 6/26/2008) (proposed 7/8/2008)

Cosponsors:
Sen Feingold, Russell D. [WI] - 6/26/2008
Sen Leahy, Patrick J. [VT] - 6/26/2008
Sen Reid, Harry [NV] - 6/26/2008
Sen Harkin, Tom [IA] - 6/26/2008
Sen Boxer, Barbara [CA] - 6/26/2008
Sen Sanders, Bernard [VT] - 6/26/2008
Sen Wyden, Ron [OR] - 6/26/2008
Sen Kennedy, Edward M. [MA] - 6/26/2008
Sen Durbin, Richard [IL] - 6/26/2008
Sen Kerry, John F. [MA] - 7/8/2008
Sen Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY] - 7/8/2008