House Shows No Immunity to President or Senate

Despite threats by both the Senate and the President concerning the revised FISA Bill that would remove immunity for telephone companies who provided private data to the Bush Administration without a court order, the House voted for a stronger bill that would allow court cases to move ahead.

CNN reports:

The House of Representatives voted Friday to back the Democratic-sponsored
revisions to federal surveillance laws.

The vote was 213 to 197 in favor
of a revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) bill that was
backed by the Democratic leadership.

One member voted present.

The vote came after a secret session Thursday night in the House. It
was the first time the House has met in secret since 1983.

The Democratic plan would allow telecommunications companies to be sued
for their role in the administration's much-disputed warrantless surveillance
program .

The bill now goes to the Senate, but both the Senate and President Bush
have made it clear they will not support the bill without the immunity
provision.