WASHINGTON — The Senate signaled an end Wednesday to months of rancorous debate over surveillance legislation that would protect from civil lawsuits the telecommunications companies that helped the government wiretap American lines.
By an 80-15 vote, the Senate turned back a last-ditch effort to kill the bill, setting up a vote to approve the measure today. The House passed the bill last week, and the Senate was expected to send it to President Bush for his signature.
Critics of the bill argue that immunizing the companies from lawsuits amounts to letting the Bush administration off the hook for nearly six years of warrantless tapping of phones and computer lines inside the United States following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The surveillance took place without the permission — or even the knowledge — of a secret court created 30 years ago to oversee just such activities.
The bill amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a compromise reached after a months-long standoff and weeks of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. In exchange for telecom immunity, the inspectors general of the Pentagon, Justice Department and intelligence agencies will investigate the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
