By Tim Starks, CQ Staff

The Senate may be forced to postpone until much later this week any roll-call votes on amendments to a bill to overhaul electronic surveillance rules, thwarting efforts by Democratic leaders to complete action on the measure quickly.

Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., had earlier said votes would begin Monday on the first of a dozen pending amendments that will require roll calls. But Monday evening, after a cloture vote on a motion to proceed to an economic stimulus package (HR 5140), Reid said Republicans would insist on running out the clock on 30 hours of debate on the motion itself. That would delay further work on the stimulus bill — and the surveillance bill.

“I am dismayed that we are going to have to stay in session tonight and do nothing, and stay in session tomorrow and do nothing,” Reid said.

Reid said “it’s obvious” that Republicans were trying to delay Senate action on the legislation “until the last minute,” so that once the bill is passed the House will have to accept it without change or faces political charges that Democrats were endangering national security.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., retorted that the Senate did nothing on the bill for most of last week “because we couldn’t get an agreement” on how to handle amendments to the surveillance bill.

He said Republicans were seeking a delay because they want a chance to read the substitute amendment to the stimulus package that Democrats just gave them Monday evening.

The surveillance measure, as approved last October by the Senate Intelligence Committee, would grant retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies. It would authorize warrantless surveillance of foreign targets even when they are communicating with people in the United States. But it would give the secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA, PL 95-511) authority to approve how such surveillance is conducted.

The first amendment debated Monday would give the FISA court power to review how well the executive branch has complied with “minimization” guidelines. “Minimization” is a term for steps the government takes to minimize retention of sensitive information about U.S. citizens that it collects incidentally.

“I know the administration fears and despises judicial oversight,” said the amendment’s author, Sheldon Whitehouse , D-R.I. “That is no reason why the Senate should follow them down that path.”

Christopher S. Bond , R-Mo., vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said there is plenty of oversight without getting the FISA court involved:

“When he said there’s no oversight, he overlooked the supervisors, the inspector generals... the Department of Justice lawyers on top of them, and more important, the Intelligence Committee itself,” Bond said.

A second amendment in line for an early vote was offered by Benjamin L. Cardin , D-Md. It would sunset the bill in four years instead of six, as currently written.

Under the agreement, both amendments need 60 votes for adoption, meaning both are likely to fail.

Also on tap is an amendment by Russ Feingold , D-Wis., and Jim Webb , D-Va., that would require the federal government to place any information collected about communications involving a foreign target and someone in the United States in a separate database. It could then be analyzed to determine whether it involves terrorism, and if it does not, the executive branch would have to notify the FISA court. Although that amendment will need only a simple majority for adoption, it is not expected to prevail.

The Senate still has not established a time agreement or vote threshold for an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein , D-Calif., that seeks to establish FISA as the exclusive guide to conducting electronic surveillance.

Reid said the lack of an agreement on the California Democrat’s proposal “is no problem at all. They probably can work out language on that. It probably won’t have to be debated.”

The most contentious amendments confronting the Senate this week relate to the handling of lawsuits against telecommunications carriers alleged to have cooperated with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

The intelligence agencies currently are operating under a 15-day extension (HR 5104 — PL 110-182) of a temporary law that loosened electronic surveillance restrictions and granted the executive branch broad warrantless surveillance authority.

The short-term law (PL 110-55) had been set to expire Feb. 1. Lawmakers now have until Feb. 16, the day after they plan to leave for the Presidents Day recess, to complete work on the FISA overhaul.

If and when the bill passes the Senate, conference negotiations with the House could be difficult. The House last year passed a FISA bill (HR 3773) that would impose tighter limits on electronic spying and would not grant retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies.

First posted Feb. 4, 2008 3:55 p.m.

Correction
Corrects the party affiliation of Rep. Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo.