House approves surveillance bill, protects telecoms

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that would continue a controversial surveillance program at the U.S. National Security Agency with limited court oversight, while likely ending lawsuits against telecommunications carriers that participated in the program.

The House on Friday voted 293 to 129 to approve a bill that was a compromise between congressional Democrats and U.S. President George Bush.

The bill would extend the NSA surveillance of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States, while giving the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court an opportunity to review Bush administration requests for wide-ranging surveillance powers. The bill, called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act , allows the NSA to receive blanket surveillance orders covering multiple suspects of terrorism and other crimes.

The compromise also sends the dozens of outstanding lawsuits against telecom carriers for their alleged participation in the NSA program to a district court, which will review whether they should be dismissed. The lawsuits would be thrown out if telecom companies can show that the U.S. government issued them orders for the surveillance that were presented as lawful.

U.S. President George Bush has pushed for the legislation, saying it's needed to protect U.S. residents from terrorism. For nearly a year, the Bush administration has called on Congress to pass long-term changes to the nation's surveillance laws. Congress passed temporary surveillance legislation, called the Protect America Act, in August 2007, but its provisions expired in February .

The Bush administration began the NSA surveillance program after the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and the program continued for about four years before news reports revealed its existence.

"Providing this liability protection is critical to the nation's security," wrote U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell in a letter on Thursday to congressional leaders. "Companies in the future may be less willing to assist the government if they face the threat of private lawsuits each time they are believed to have provided assistance."

The U.S. Senate could take up the bill as early as next week. The telecom immunity provisions may face opposition  there.

Democrats, the majority party in Congress, were split on the bill, with 105 voting for it and 128 against it. Opponents of the bill argued the NSA program violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures.

The telecom immunity provisions in the bill went too far, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat. "These provisions turn the judiciary into the [Bush] administration's rubber stamp," she said. "The [court] review that's provided for in this bill is an empty formality that will lead to a preordained conclusion dismissing all cases with no examination of their merit."