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Today the House is voting on a revised wiretapping bill. Brian Beutler reports on the legislation:
The vote itself is a victory for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Moments after the Congress passed the August measure enshrined in the so-called Protect America Act -- Pelosi demanded her committee chairmen get to work fixing it.In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers, D-Mich., and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., the speaker urged the committees to "send to the House, as soon as possible after Congress reconvenes, legislation which responds comprehensively to the Administration's proposal while addressing the many deficiencies."But aides doubted they could move any legislation that would survive a Bush veto before February 2008, when the August bill sunsets. At that point, a veto would kick off a vicious fight between the Congress and the White House, with both facing the high stakes of forcing backward progress -- if nothing's passed, the law reverts to the old, antiquated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a law that most agreed required at least a narrow update.Read the rest (and comment) here.--The Editors
