FISA fight could drag into next week

The Senate could stay in session into next week until a deal is reached on giving the administration authority to eavesdrop on terrorist suspects, leaders of both parties indicated on Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters that Democrats would formally offer “a proposal of our own” on Friday. Yet Reid left open the possibility that a bipartisan accord on revising the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) could materialize on Friday “or next week.”

{mosads}Weighty questions remained unanswered as Republicans continued to insist on keeping the Senate in session until passage of a FISA bill acceptable to Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mike McConnell.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), appearing with Reid, said her chamber would take up a FISA bill on Friday. But the DNI immediately objected to the Democratic-written measure.

“The House proposal would not allow me to carry out my responsibility to provide warning and to protect the nation, especially in our heightened threat environment,” the spy chief said in a statement. “I urge Members of Congress to support the legislation I provided [late Thursday] to modify FISA and to equip our Intelligence Community with the tools we need to protect our Nation.”

President Bush weighed in on Friday as well, challenging Congress to pass “a bill I can sign” and vowing to veto any FISA bill that the DNI does not approve.

The DNI made a counter-offer to Democrats late Thursday, heeding their request that the secret court in charge of FISA wiretaps would review monitoring of foreign targets ‹ but only 120 days after the eavesdropping has begun.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would play a key role in approving initial spying under the administration’s plan, a prospect that is objectionable to many Democrats and at least one Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.).

Pelosi said on Friday that Gonzales’ pattern of evasive testimony before Congress, among other recent controversies, “completely discredits him from being the arbiter of FISA.”

“Having said that,” Pelosi added, “I don’t care who the attorney general is, the attorney general under a Democratic president or a Republican president. It’s not appropriate that the same branch of government have all of that power.”

Lawmakers and aides remained in limbo on Friday afternoon, as Republicans repeatedly urged Reid to call up the administration-approved FISA bill offered by Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-Mo.), vice chairman of the intelligence committee.  

“We will not adjourn until this comes to a vote, even if that means waiting until Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” Bond said in a Friday interview.

At an afternoon press conference with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Bond said the FISA court has signed off on the DNI’s goal of removing cases focused on foreign-to-foreign communications from its caseload.

“[T]hey have expressed their frustration with the fact that so much of their docket is consumed by applications that focus on foreign targets,” Bond said.

Democrats initially insisted that the FISA court approve warrants for spying on foreign targets who make a “significant” number of calls to the U.S., incensing Republicans, but the blog TPM Muckraker reported late Friday that that requirement may be softened.

“It makes no sense to require the Government to obtain a court order to collect foreign intelligence on foreign targets located in foreign countries,” the White House press office wrote in a release to reporters.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and liberal allies in the caucus have held out for a more short-term fix. But Bond indicated that the administration is not ready to compromise beyond a six-month sunset: “The negotiations are over,” he said, suggesting a stalemate between Democrats and the White House.

Democrats may press forward on a FISA fix without Republican votes before adjournment. That prospect appeared increasingly likely in the House late Friday, as Rep. Heather Wilson (N.M.), a senior House Republican on intelligence issues, took to the floor to denounce Democratic leaders’ FISA bill.

“If we’re trying to fix the intelligence gap, this will not do it,” Wilson said on the floor late Friday.

If the DNI signals dissatisfaction with whatever FISA fix Congress eventually approves, Bush could respond by teeing up a “pocket veto” during adjournment. The Constitution provides that a president has 10 days to veto a bill before it automatically becomes law, unless Congress “by their adjournment prevent [a bill’s] return, in which case, it shall not be a law.”

A pocket veto could force lawmakers back into session or, in the unlikely event that the administration and Congress cannot reach ultimate agreement, trigger a court challenge.

“The scope of the pocket veto power has been left largely to practice and to political understandings developed by the executive and legislative branches,” the Congressional Research Service reported in a 2001 report, noting that former President Bill Clinton used the pocket veto three times during intra-session adjournments.

Manu Raju and Helen Fessenden contributed to this report.