WASHINGTON -- A high-stakes showdown over the future of U.S. eavesdropping law is taking place behind closed doors on Capitol Hill.
With scant time remaining before possible votes in the House and the Senate as early as Wednesday, the Bush administration is lobbying for permanent surveillance ability over the objections of top legislators.
The biggest sticking point: an expiration date of December 2003 that the House Judiciary committee unanimously slapped on some of the additional Internet spying and wiretapping sections last week.
An aide to Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan), the top Democrat on the committee, said Tuesday that the "administration does not want the Judiciary bill to go to the floor for a vote."
The aide said that Conyers and his GOP counterpart, Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, are planning to circulate a letter "with a lot of Republican signatures stating the importance of sending this bill to the floor."
The full House will vote on the legislation by Thursday, a spokesman for Speaker Dennis Hastert predicted.
The Senate version of the eavesdropping and anti-terrorism bill -- which does not include an expiration date -- will reportedly be up for a vote late Wednesday or Thursday.
That version of the legislation is called the USA Act, and it appears to have the Justice Department's endorsement.
"They've been working with the administration. I'm sure they are interested in moving it as is," says a spokeswoman for the Senate Judiciary committee, referring to the Senate leadership.
This isn't a partisan divide: Instead, it could pit Republicans in the House against the leader of their party during a time when President Bush's approval ratings are at an all-time high.
Members of the House Judiciary committee, traditionally home to the most partisan legislators, seem unwilling to acquiesce to pressure from the Justice Department and are urging their colleagues not to adopt the Senate version of the bill.
In a letter to his colleagues dated Oct. 5, Rep. Bob Barr (R-Georgia) urged his colleagues to adopt the House Judiciary bill, dubbed the Patriot Act.
Wrote Barr: "I understand, however, the administration and the (Justice) Department are now criticizing the bill we all worked long and hard to develop. I am disappointed the House leadership is being pressed to turn their backs on the compromise bill, and take up the Senate version of the bill, which includes none of the important provisions agreed to and adopted in the House bill."
Because the Justice Department would like to avoid the prospect of both chambers of Congress approving different bills -- which would require more negotiations, votes and delays -- it has proposed a "preconference" to smooth out differences in advance.
"There have been staff discussions to preconference the bill," says John Feehery, a press aide to Speaker Hastert. "It is expected. They don't want it to go into conference."
Feehery says that "there are some significant differences that we need to work out, but I don't think we're inclined to pick up the Senate bill and pass it."
The House's Patriot Act is a completely different bill from the Senate version, and includes:
- A study of how biometric identification systems -- tied to the FBI fingerprint database -- could be used at U.S. borders and consular offices to nab anyone wanted for a crime. The attorney general has 90 days to prepare a report.
- An attempt to limit "forum-shopping" by prosecutors seeking wiretap orders.
- Assurance that Internet providers, which will be required to cooperate with law enforcement's requests for surveillance of users, won't be forced to retool their networks just for police convenience.
- Allowance for individuals to sue police who leak information obtained in a wiretap.
During a conference call Tuesday, Jerry Berman of the Center for Democracy and Technology called the Senate bill "a significant attack on our civil liberties."
Benjamin Polen contributed to this report.
