FISA measure tests relationship between Rockefeller and Bond

Tension is growing between the two senators who shepherded a controversial rewrite of surveillance laws through the Senate, with each dismissing the other’s role in closed-door negotiations to finalize a deal with the House and the Bush administration.

Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the chairman and ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, respectively, worked closely to win their panel’s approval last October of a bill to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), as well as the full Senate’s passage in February.

{mosads}But the bill, which would authorize electronic surveillance operations, has since stalled in the House. And the two men have carried out their own private negotiations — absent the other — to break the stalemate.

Bond has held one-on-one negotiations with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who late last week floated a counterproposal that has the support of Rockefeller. Meanwhile, Rockefeller says Bond’s private talks with Hoyer are not driving a deal, pointing instead to his work with House Democrats and the office of Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence (DNI).

And after previously applauding one another for shepherding the bill through the Senate, they each have been terse in describing the other’s involvement.

“The DNI has not talked to Chairman Rockefeller. I have worked with the intelligence community, the Republican leaders in the House to make the offer that we made to Mr. Hoyer,” Bond said.

Rockefeller responds: “I have been working with the DNI and with Steny Hoyer, and [Bond] is the one that has not been involved.”

Wendy Morigi, a Rockefeller spokeswoman, said that “all parties” are involved in the talks and that her boss’s response refers to Democratic discussions about the response to a Republican counterproposal made before Memorial Day.

“Rockefeller and Bond have both been working to get this bill passed, and each is focusing on the areas where they have strongest relationships and ability to negotiate,” Morigi said. “That does not mean they’re not working toward the same goal.”

Democrats privately say that they have been agitated by Bond’s aggressive style and partisan attacks and that the Republican has tried to insert himself into the process as they delicately attempt a compromise with the administration.

But Republicans say Rockefeller has created problems by backing away from assurances to keep the Senate bill intact and that his role is now grossly overstated.

The tensions are simmering as the two sides try to complete a complex FISA rewrite that is turning into one of the most contentious election-year battles over domestic security. The way the debate has devolved may leave Bond and Rockefeller with raw feelings.

“I can’t speak for them, but all I can say is that I know that Sen. Bond feels aggrieved that we’re not standing up to the House,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who sits on the Intelligence Committee.

House Democratic leaders angered Bond in February when they refused to take up the Senate-passed bill, which would give telephone firms retroactive immunity for participating in warrantless wiretapping as part of the Bush administration’s surveillance effort. Democrats, who questioned why such protections are needed if the companies and administration acted legally, called for more talks. Republicans initially refused.

But Rockefeller broke with Bond and decided to negotiate with House Democrats. Bond later sought his private negotiations with Hoyer, a move that agitated Rockefeller.

Bond, with support from the White House and House Republicans, offered a compromise proposal before Memorial Day, saying that phone companies would have to make their case for immunity before a secret court established by the 1978 FISA. Republicans say immunity is needed so phone companies would continue to cooperate with the government.

Democrats responded with their own proposal last week, but spokeswomen for Hoyer and Rockefeller would not characterize its contents.

“My only concern is completing a bill that protects Americans,” Bond said Monday.

Rockefeller said Bond’s insistence to hold private talks with Hoyer have made it harder to reach a compromise.

After The Hill reported Rockefeller’s comments last week, the White House and DNI came to Bond’s defense and issued statements saying that the administration was not holding separate talks with Democrats. Bond has been the point person in trying to break the stalemate, they stated, and they reaffirmed their support of the recent GOP plan.

Shana Marchio, a Bond spokeswoman, said the administration’s statements “speak for themselves.”

Marchio said last week that Bond was unaware of Rockefeller’s “direct involvement” in the FISA discussions between the House and Senate.

When asked about those statements, Rockefeller had this to say: “What I think about that is that they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

J. Taylor Rushing contributed to this article.