The House today passed a bill that would extend by 15 days a law that expanded the Bush administration’s powers to conduct anti-terrorism surveillance without warrants. The law is set to expire Friday. The original measure called for a 30-day extension.
Here are debate excerpts from Democrats John Conyers of Michigan and Jane Harman of California. Conyers said the temporary extension would give Congress more time to reach agreement on “responsible” reform to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that governs such wiretaps.
Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., also addressed the wiretapping debate in a press conference.
Sen. Russell Feingold has been a leading voice against the Bush administration’s surveillance tactics in the war on terrorism. In this interview with the blog Open Left, the Wisconsin Democrat said he illustrates the depth of the surveillance by telling audiences that even e-mail he reads on his BlackBerry from his daughter in England is subject to government monitoring.
“[T]he government can suck up all your e-mails and all your phone calls, whether it be to your son or daughter in Iraq or your child that’s [in her] junior year abroad … and there’s no court oversight of it at all,” Feingold said. “It’s just ‘Trust us’ by the administration.”
The House today narrowly passed a bill designed to improve mine safety despite a veto threat from the White House. The vote was 214-199.
Here are debate excerpts floor speeches by Democrats George Miller of California, Tim Bishop of New York, Rush Holt of New Jersey and John Yarmuth of Kentucky.
The “fairness doctrine,” a policy that until 1987 required broadcasters to give equal time to opposing viewpoints, has been getting attention lately as Republicans try to keep Democrats from reinstating the rule on the airwaves. Below is a clip of Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., debating Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., about that issue.
Coleman opposes revival of the fairness doctrine and noted that the talk of doing so is unwisely aimed at talk radio, which is dominated by conservatives. “I think it’s very dangerous for government to be in the position of deciding what’s fair and balanced,” he said, later adding that “there’s nothing fair about the fairness doctrine.”
The wireless association CTIA held its annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., this week, and the agenda included a number of telecommunitcations policy topics. Here are the relevant podcasts:
AT&T chief Ed Whitacre on the call for “network neutrality,” the term used for mandating equal treatment of content on high-speed Internet networks:
The push to reform universal service, a federal fund that subsidizes communications services and Internet access in rural and low-income areas:
The auctioning of airwaves in the 700-megahertz band of spectrum:
The wireless industry’s relationship with state policymakers and the industry’s view on the best approach to regulating their sector:
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