Dodd, Feingold help delay spying bill

Democratic senators declared victory Monday after Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) delayed until January the upper chamber’s debate of a bill to impose new limits on President Bush’s warrantless spying program.

{mosads}The bill would establish new court and congressional oversight over Bush’s program, but its provision to grant retroactive legal immunity to the telephone firms that allegedly participated in the program deeply divided the caucus.

Supporters argue the firms should be protected because the administration gave them assurances, saying their actions were legal and critical for national security in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks. But critics say that if the Bush administration and the firms acted legally, retroactive legal immunity to absolve the firms from about 40 lawsuits for allegedly wiretapping Americans should not be granted.

Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) tied up the Senate floor in procedural knots on Monday, vowing to derail the bill unless the retroactive immunity provision was removed.

“Today we have scored a victory for American civil liberties and sent a message to President Bush that we will not tolerate his abuse of power and veil of secrecy,” said Dodd, a long-shot presidential candidate who left the campaign trail in Iowa to return to debate the measure.

Faced with criticism from the left, and with over a dozen amendments pending as Christmas Day draws near, Reid said he was forced to pull the bill in order to deliberatively debate the bill in January rather than rush “through the legislative process.”

Reid opposes the immunity provision, which was included in a bipartisan Intelligence Committee bill approved by a 13-2 vote earlier this year. Reid called on the administration to allow all senators to access classified documents justifying the need for telecom immunity before the chamber’s January debate.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who co-authored the bill, said he was “disappointed” that the bill was pulled from the floor after the Senate earlier in the day overwhelmingly voted 76-10 to take up the measure.

When Congress returns in January, it will have less than a month to pass the bill out of the Senate and reconcile it with a House measure before the temporary Protect America Act expires in February.