House Surveillance Bill Contains Provision to Aid Telecom Suits

By Paul Kiel - March 11, 2008
TPM Muckraker

As The New York Times reports this morning, the House leadership's draft proposal for a surveillance bill contains a provision that would reject giving retroactive immunity to the telecoms. Instead, it would give the courts authorization to hear the classified material at issue in the case -- in essence disposing with the administration's claim of the state secrets privilege. I had a senior House aide walk me through the proposal, which is sure to infuriate the administration.

I outlined the other aspects of the Dems' draft bill on Friday. The Times adds that the proposal would create "a bipartisan Congressional commission with subpoena power to issue a report on the surveillance programs." That would be in addition to a provision requiring an audit of the warrantless wiretapping program by the Department of Justice's inspector general, the aide told me.

So here's how that telecom suit provision would work. The lawsuits against the telecoms for participation in the warrantless wiretapping program are currently tied up in court because the government has asserted the state secrets privilege. It's a state of affairs that the telecoms themselves are not happy with, as Wayne Watts, AT&T's general counsel, wrote in a letter to lawmakers last October:

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