FISA Update

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Wed., Jan 23, 2008
Filed under: Congressional Oversight

Today, Mitch McConnell blocked (for the second time in about a month) Harry Reid’s efforts to secure a one month extension for the Protect America Act. That, you’ll recall, was the six-month bill passed hastily last August by the Congress which made FISA even more unclear than it already was, and increased in a number of ways the threat it poses to the civil liberties of American citizens.

The sunset kicks in just over a week from now, and it seems incredibly unlikely that a replacement bill (one that suits both Republicans and progressives in the Senate, and that’s easily reconciled with the House legislation) can be teased through the sausage-making process in time. And as such, this may well turn into a couple of very public, and highly-spun battles–one between the two parties and one within the Democratic party, when, under pressure by the GOP to pass a White House friendly bill, Harry Reid and others square off against Chris Dodd and the handful of progressives in the caucus who remain unwilling to give the White House everything it wants.