Phone Firms' Bid for Immunity in Wiretaps Gains Ground

The White House and Republican lawmakers are pushing to make the law permanent while also adding legal protections for telecommunications companies, which face dozens of lawsuits.

Senate intelligence committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.) and other Democrats on the panel have backed the immunity legislation. Rockefeller said yesterday that the companies "acted in good faith" and "provided assistance because they wanted to stop terrorist attacks."

But civil liberties advocates, liberal activist groups and most House Democrats oppose providing retroactive immunity for what they allege may have been violations of federal law. The House approved a strikingly different surveillance bill denying legal protections to the phone companies and strengthening court oversight of clandestine spying.

The issue has spilled over into the Democratic presidential race: Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) have said that they oppose legal immunity for the telecoms, but neither was present for yesterday's vote. In a series of e-mails to supporters yesterday, the liberal group MoveOn.org urged Clinton and Obama to help lead a filibuster to block the immunity legislation in the Senate.

Rockefeller told reporters this week that he is confident he has the 60 votes needed to overcome any filibuster attempt.

Debate on the issue is now stalled until Monday afternoon because of the GOP maneuver. If the Senate votes to resume debate, a host of key amendments could affect the final outcome.

They include an amendment, offered by Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), that would make the federal government liable for privacy violations, instead of companies. Another from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) would allow a secret intelligence court to determine whether companies should receive immunity. Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D.-Conn.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) also plan to offer a separate measure to strip the immunity, but that amendment faces long odds, given yesterday's 60 to 36 vote.