WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney prodded Congress on Wednesday to extend and broaden an expiring surveillance law, saying “fighting the war on terror is a long-term enterprise” that should not come with an expiration date.
“We’re reminding Congress that they must act now,” Cheney told the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The law, which authorizes the administration to eavesdrop on phone calls and see the e-mail to and from suspected terrorists, expires Feb. 1.
Congress is bickering over terms of its extension. Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to extend the stopgap Protect America Act without expanding it, raising stakes for an expected showdown in the Senate later this week on a new version of the law.
“This cause is bigger than the quarrels of party and the agendas of politicians,” Cheney said. “And if we in Washington, all of us, can only see our way clear to work together, then the outcome should not be in doubt.”
Congress hastily adopted the stopgap act last summer in the face of administration warnings about dangerous gaps in the government’s ability to gather intelligence in the Internet age.
Administration allies in Congress want the expiring law made permanent and amended to give telephone companies and other communications providers immunity from being sued for helping the government eavesdropping and other intelligence-gathering efforts.
Reid plans to bring competing versions of the legislation to the Senate floor today. He said he will require the Senate to work through the weekend if necessary to get a bill passed.
