New Terrorism Wiretap Law Likely to Pass
Democrats are likely to back a bill to extend the government’s wiretap authority in terrorism investigations.
Administration officials told the New York Times that they believed a law would pass that authorizes the National Security Agency spy program for several more years. Democrats are willing to vote yes because they fear being seen as soft on terrorism.
Congress approved a temporary bill in August that allows the government to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails of overseas terrorism suspects without a warrant if they go through U.S. telecommunications lines, even when the suspect is communicating with someone inside the United States, newspapers reported at the time.
The House version of the bill to be proposed today would expand the authority of the secret foreign intelligence court to approve basket warrants for groups of overseas communications and would impose audits on the NSA program, the Times reports. It would not give retroactive immunity to communications companies that helped the government monitor communications.
Civil liberties groups said the additional oversight in the bill was an improvement on the August law but it still gives too much power to government to intercept calls without a warrant.
