Via Senate by Cboldt, here are the terms of the Senate unanimous consent agreement.
Summary of the UC Agreement for Passing FISA
- All pending amendments set aside, except
3911, the SSCI bill
- 4 amendments pass on unanimous consent agreement (no votes)
- Feingold 3909 (FISC reports legal opinions re: TSP to Congress) as modified
- Whitehouse 3932 (acquisition continues during government appeal) as modified
- Kennedy 3960 (relating to domestic-domestic acquisition) as modified
- Bond 3945 (eliminates a 7 day deadline) w/o modification
- 8 amendments pass on majority vote, motions to table are in order
- Bond 3941 (FISC standard of review) as modified, 20 minutes
- Bond 3938 (new category of target, WMD proliferator) as modified, 20 minutes
- Feingold 3907 (strike Title II), 2 hours
- Specter/Whitehouse 3927 (substitute government for telecoms), 2 hours
- Feingold 3913 (insert “significant purpose”), 40 minutes
- Feingold 3912 (insert “significant purpose”), 40 minutes
- Feingold 3915 (FISC has power to remedy deficient certifications), 40 minutes
- Feingold/Webb regarding sequestration, 90 minutes
34 amendments require 60 votes to pass, to be withdrawn otherwise
[Written UC is different from Reid’s oral delivery]- Feinstein 3919 (remove pending civil litigation to FISC), 2 hours
- Cardin 3930 (4 year sunset), 60 minutes
- Whitehouse 3920 (empower FISC to order changes to acquisition, retention or dissemination), 60 minutes
- Feinstein 3910 (FISA is exclusive means),
no time limit on debate90 minutes
[Written UC is different from Reid’s oral delivery]
- amendment passes on majority vote [Written UC is different from Reid’s oral delivery]
Feinstein 3910
- Managers amendment (usually agreed on voice vote)
- Cloture on bill (cloture motion hasn’t yet been filed)
- Pass bill then place it in the HR 3773 vehicle and send it back to the House
Same list of amendments, with a little more detail and links to parts of the Congressional Record
that contain the text of the amendments. CAUTION: This is a draft, the summaries of subject material
were prepared in haste, not carefully. I’m looking for a PDF of S.Amdt3911 for pagination and line
numbering.
- 4 Amendments Agreed to on Unanimous Consent
-
Feingold 3909
(as modified) is FISC reporting its legal decisions re: TSP, etc. to Congress.
The “as modified” language not being known, it’s not possible to tell (yet) if the reports include
redacted pleadings. “As modified” generally indicates some degree of concession.
Whitehouse 3932 (as modified) describes the continuance of acquisition pending appeal of an
averse ruling from the FISC
Kennedy 3960 (as modified) specifies that targeting procedures must preclude obtaining domestic
communications; that FISC must review targeting; similarly (domestic-domestic) revises minimization
Bond 3945 w/o modification, eliminates a 7 day deadline (On page 15, beginning on line 10,
strike “not later than 7 days after the issuance of such decision”)
-
- 8 Amendments that pass or are tabled on majority votes
Bond 3941 sets out the FISC standard of review and time limits for telecom objections to acquisition directives
(On page 13, between lines 2 and 3 — assignment of a petition filed under subparagraph (A))
Bond 3938 creates new categories of target, “engages in the international proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, or activities in preparation therefor” and defines WMD [interesting read]-
Feingold 3907
is “Strike Title II”
Specter/Whitehouse 3927 substitutes the government for telecoms in civil suits
Feingold 3913 inserts “significant purpose” at four appropriate locations.- On page 6, line 6
- On page 7, line 7
- On page 9, between lines 9 and 10
- On page 17, line 2
Feingold 3912 inserts “significant purpose” at one location (page 10 between lines 5 and 6)
Feingold 3915 empowers the FISC to order the government to either correct deficiencies or cease acquisition,
if a subsection (f) certification is deficient- Feingold/Webb regarding sequestration [my guess is this sets up a human firewall to perform
the minimization function]
34 Amendments that require 60 votes to pass [Written UC is different from Reid’s oral delivery]
Feinstein 3919 removes the pending civil litigation pertaining to the TSP to the FISC and defines the
standard of review leading to dismissal
Cardin 3930 is an approximate 4 year sunset for the procedure to obtain new orders (Dec 31, 2011)
Whitehouse 3920 empowers the FISC to conduct compliance reviews as to performance under subsections
(k)(1), (k)(2), and (k)(3) [I’m guessing these define minimization] relating to acquisition, retention,
or dissemination; and authorizes remedies to enforce compliance-
Feinstein 3910
is an attempt to match the president’s Article II power with “exclusive means” statutory language
- Amendment that passes on a majority vote
Feinstein 3910[Written UC is different from Reid’s oral delivery]
Harry Reid did a good job negotiating this agreement, but he still screwed us by introducing the Intelligence Committee version of this bill (which has telecom immunity) as the base bill rather than the Judiciary Committee version (which does not). As a result, the Feingold-Dodd amendment (A.3907) must pass to prevent a blatant obstruction of justice under the cover of law. Reid overcame Republican demands that A.3907 suffer a ‘silent filibuster’, where it would have required 60 votes to pass. That’s good, but there is a problem. On January 24th, the Senate voted on the Judiciary version of the bill and the Democrats only got thirty-six votes. If Clinton and Obama vote, we will have thirty-eight votes. The Judiciary Bill and the telecom immunity issue are not synonymous, but that vote is a good indication of how senators will vote on A.3907. The offending senators were: Bayh, Inouye, T. Johnson, Landrieu, Lieberman, McCaskill, Mikulski, Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor, Rockefeller, and Salazar. There is no way we can persuade all of them to change their minds, but you should call them about this vote and let them know that you consider them to be aiding and abetting the cover-up of crime, and therefore they are committing a quasi-criminal act which is only legal because Congress gets to decide what is legal. If they want to write a law specifically designed to cover up crimes by the executive branch of government, they can do that. It’s your responsibility to tell them that they are abdicating their responsibility to uphold (what is normally understood to be) the Law.
Some of these quasi-criminals will try to salve their consciences by voting for Sen. Whitehouse and Sen. Specter’s A.3927, which will substitute the federal government for the telecoms as the defendant in any civil litigation related to illegal warrantless electronic surveillance. Don’t be fooled. Even if this amendment passes the executive branch could successfully kill all lawsuits by invoking executive privilege or the state secrets privilege, and thereby cover up their crimes. Whitehouse-Specter (3927) is nothing more than a ruse designed to let senatorial sell-outs act like they are concerned about violations of our privacy rights, when they could give two shits. Tell your senators that you don’t want to see any bullshit, like them voting against Feingold-Dodd and then voting for Whitehouse-Specter. You want a yes vote on the first, and only if the Feingold-Dodd fails, do you want to see a ‘yes’ on Whitehouse-Specter. Otherwise, you want to see a no on ‘Whitehouse-Specter’.
The other amendments that are a very high priority are Feinstein’s A.3910, which reiterates that FISA is the exclusive means of collecting electronic foreign intelligence (60 votes) and Feingold’s A. 3912, 3913, and 3915 (50 votes). You want ‘yeses’ on all of those amendments.
It’s important that we win as many of these battles as possible. There are other battles that are less important (like Cardin’s amendment to move the sunset to four years from six), but the really important stuff is contained in Feingold’s amendments, and some of them have a good chance of passing.
Will Senator Dodd filibuster the bill on final passage if it contains telecom immunity (as it will)? I have heard mixed messages on that. He did agree to this process (he gave his consent). Yet, he has long promised to filibuster any bill that provides immunity. We shall see. Either way, though, his filibuster is unlikely to be successful. And you have Harry Reid and Jay Rockefeller to thank for that.
Name Phone FAX
Bayh (202) 224-5623 (202) 228-1377
Carper (202) 224-2441 (202) 228-2190
Obama (202) 224-2854 (202) 228-4260
Inouye (202) 224-3934 (202) 224-6747
Johnson (202) 224-5842 (202) 228 5765
Landrieu (202)224-5824 (202) 224-9735
McCaskill (202) 224-6154 (202) 228-6326
Mikulski (202) 224-4654 (202) 224-8858
Nelson (FL) (202) 224-5274 (202) 228-2183
Clinton (202) 224-4451 (202) 228-0282
Nelson (NE) (202) 224-6551 (202) 228-0012
Pryor (202) 224-2353 (202) 228-0908
Salazar (202) 224-5852 (202) 228-5036
Specter (202) 224-4254 (202) 228-1229
McCain (202) 224-2235 (202) 228-2862
Graham (202) 224-5972 (202) 224-3808
Warner (202) 224-2023 (202) 224-6295
Snowe (202) 224-5344 (202) 224-1946
Collins (202) 224-2523 (202) 224-2693
Sununu (202) 224-2841 (202) 228-4131
Lieberman (202) 224-4041 (202) 224-9750
Byrd (202) 224-3954 (202) 228-0002
Lincoln (202)224-4843 (202)228-1371
Chambliss (202) 224-3521 (202) 224-0103
Coleman (202) 224-5641 (202) 224-1152
Dole (202) 224-6342 (202) 224-1100
Smith (202) 224-3753 (202) 228-3997
Stabenow (202) 224-4822 (202) 228-0325
Kohl (202) 224-5653 (202) 224-9787
Feinstein (202) 224-3841 (202) 228-3954
