Russ Feingold’s website currently lists a series of amendments to the FISA bill that he, along with several other Senators, plans on offering up:
- Dodd-Feingold Amendment Stripping Retroactive Immunity
- Feingold-Webb-Tester Amendment to Provide Protections for Americans
- Use Limits Amendment
- Prohibiting “Reverse Targeting”
- Prohibiting “Bulk Collection”
- Giving Congress Access to FISA Court Materials
A description of each can be found at Feingold’s site.
Of particular interest is the “bulk collection” prohibition. This is presumably the part of the wiretapping program Senator Rockefeller “let slip” in a speech on the floor. As Wired wrote at the time, this program permitted “the nation’s spooks [to] secretly and unilaterally install filters inside America’s phone and internet infrastructure” (Room 641A). The Director of National Intelligence believes that the “Protect America Act” makes these kinds of technological drift nets legal. Feingold’s amendment prohibits them.
Also of note are the Senators already co-sponsoring these amendments: Dodd, Tester, and Webb.
Will Obama step up and support these experienced progressive senators in ensuring government accountability?
1 Comment
December 17, 2008 at 4:46 pm
[...] blog sprouted around the FISA issue. All along the way, Senator Russ Feingold (D, WI) has been an unwavering voice demanding a return to constitutionality and [...]