Housing bill, FISA delayed until after July recess

The Senate hit impasses over legislation aimed at helping struggling homeowners and a rewrite of spying laws, forcing Democratic leaders to push back consideration of those measures until next month.

Leaders had hoped to finish both measures this week, in addition to an emergency war-spending bill and a Medicare bill, before lawmakers return home by week's end. Both bills have wide support, but in each case, individual senators have refused to let the measures speed through the chamber. As a result, they were forced to lower the bar for this week's action.

Democrats also threatened to keep the Senate in session through the weekend if Republicans didn’t agree to move quickly with the Medicare bill.

Objections by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) will push back an overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) until after lawmakers return in July, Democratic leaders said Thursday. Feingold is strongly opposed to language that would likely give telephone companies that participated in warrantless surveillance retroactive immunity from lawsuits.

"It doesn't look like it," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said of taking up the FISA bill this week. "Sen. Feingold wants additional time and would like to postpone it until after the Fourth of July."

Durbin said: "We can't leave until we finish Medicare and the supplemental."

On the housing legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said an amendment squabble pressed by Republicans this week was too difficult to overcome in the time lawmakers have left before the break.

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) was pushing for an extension of renewable energy initiatives, while Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said the legislation was "too complex to be rushed" and protested that Republican amendments weren't being allowed.

{mosads}Reid suggested Wednesday night that the housing bill could be delayed, but finally slammed the door on the possibility Thursday morning. Reid also said that when the Senate returns, he still will not allow Republican amendments that did not pertain to housing issues.

"There will be no amendments other than housing-related amendments," he said.

Reid had hoped to clear the housing bill by mid-week, allowing time to finish an overhaul of FISA, a Medicare package and an emergency war-spending measure.

The housing bill would expand the Federal Housing Administration’s $300 billion insurance to aid struggling borrowers, provide nearly $15 billion in tax breaks and overhaul mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The battle between Reid and Ensign was ironic given that May’s foreclosure rate in Nevada was the highest in the country for the 17th consecutive month. It also created several pointed exchanges on the Senate floor Wednesday night between Ensign and Durbin.