Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) on the House floor today, speaking about FISA, telecom immunity and lawbreaking...

NOTE:  Several updates below the fold.  Click through for the most up-to-date information. 

From the debate thus far on the floor of the House on changes to RESTORE (H/T to cboldt for the link to the legislative changes), Rep. Lloyd Doggett had this to say (H/T to the Speaker's office for putting the video up so promptly):

"For a party that purports to hate big government, these Republicans sure do seem to love Big Brother. They demand unlimited executive power and unrestrained authority to intrude into our everyday lives. And today we dare to impose some limitations on one of so many examples of their callous disregard of our liberties. If even former Attorney General John Ashcroft, sitting there in the hospital bed, in intensive care, if even he could recognize the illegality of the surveillance which Dick Cheney demanded, why shouldn't we in Congress be able to do the same thing? And if one telecommunications company had the courage to say no to this administration's wrongdoing, why not the others?"

The House is currently debating the Mortgage Reform and Subprime Lending Act, and will go back to the RESTORE bill after that has concluded, I am told.

In the meantime, the SJC continues to debate mark-up on the Senate FISA bill. Here's the latest update that I have on the SJC:

Feingold just offered a good amendment and it passed, but I do not have it yet.

As soon as I get my hands on the text of Feingold's amendment, I'll put it up for everyone. In the meantime, here is the summary that I've been provided by folks at the ACLU on the House RESTORE changes:

The RESTORE ACT:

1. Clarifies That No Court Warrant is Required to Intercept Communications of Non-United States Persons When Both Ends of the Communications are Outside the United States.

2. Ensures that Nothing in the Bill Inhibits Lawful Surveillance for the Purpose of Protecting the Nation and the Troops from Threats Posed by Osama Bin Laden and Weapons of Mass Destruction.

3. Requires an Individualized Court Warrant from the FISA Court When Targeting Americans in the United States. (Same as current law.)

4. Creates a Program of Court Authorized Targeting of Non-U.S. Persons Outside the United States. Grants the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence authority to apply to the FISA Court for a single order to conduct surveillance of multiple foreign targets for up to one year - but RESTORES the following checks and balances that are absent under the PAA:

a. Court Review of Targeting Procedures. The FISA Court must review targeting procedures on a quarterly basis to ensure that they are reasonably designed to protect Americans and target only people outside the United States. In emergencies, the Government may conduct surveillance for up to 45 days without advanced court approval.

b. Court Review of Minimization Procedures. The FISA Court must review minimization procedures on a quarterly basis.

c. Court Review of Compliance with Guidelines on a quarterly basis to ensure that, among other things, when the government seeks to conduct electronic surveillance of Americans, the government obtains a traditional individualized warrant from the FISA Court.

5. Clarifies Ambiguous Language on Warrantless Domestic Searches. The bill clarifies ambiguous language in the PAA that appeared to authorize warrantless searches inside the United States, including physical searches of American homes, offices, computers, and medical records.

6. A RESTORE ACT Authorization May Not Be Used to Target Any Known U.S. Person. If the government learns or has reason to know that the target of surveillance is a U.S. Person (for example, an American traveling abroad), it cannot use this new authority.

7. Limits Authority to Terrorism, Espionage, Sabotage, and Threats to National Security. The Administration's bill allowed for surveillance for all foreign intelligence, including a broad category of information related to "foreign affairs." This bill allows the Intelligence Community to deal with the threats facing the United States from terrorism, espionage, sabotage, clandestine intelligence activities, and to collect information related to the national defense or security of the U.S., without authorizing the collection on the broad category of "foreign affairs."

8. Requires Regular Audits and Reports. Requires audits every 120 days by the Justice Department Inspector General on communications collected under this authority and the number of U.S. persons identified in intelligence reports disseminated pursuant to this collection. These audits would be provided to the FISA Court and to Congress (Intelligence and Judiciary Committees).

9. Requires an Audit of the President's Surveillance Program and Other Warrantless Surveillance Programs. This audit mandates a report and documents related to these programs be provided to Congress in unclassified form with a classified annex. A separate provision requires that the President brief the intelligence committees on such programs within seven days after the date of enactment.

10. Requires Recordkeeping of the Use of United States Persons' Information. Mandates that the Executive Branch record every instance in which the identity of a U.S. Person whose communication was acquired by the Intelligence Community is disseminated within the Executive Branch and that it submit an annual report to Congress on such dissemination.

11. Adds Resources for FISA. Adds funding for training, personnel and technology resources at DOJ, NSA and the FISA Court to speed the FISA process and to ensure that audits can be conducted expeditiously.

12. Reiterates the Exclusivity of FISA. Includes House-passed bipartisan Schiff-Flake language stating that FISA is the exclusive means to conduct electronic surveillance of Americans for the purpose of foreign intelligence collection.

13. No Retroactive Immunity. The bill is silent on retroactive immunity because the Administration has not provided Congress with documents on the specifics of the President's warrantless surveillance program. However, the bill does provide prospective immunity for those complying with court orders issued pursuant to this authority.

14. Establishes En Banc Review. Allows the FISA Court to sit en banc. The FISA Court requested this, and the Administration does not oppose it.

15. Provides Sunset, Transition Procedures and Report on PAA. Sunsets this new authority on December 31, 2009, when certain PATRIOT Act provisions also sunset. However, the legislation will allow for a transition from the existing warrants to the new ones to ensure that the Intelligence Community does not go "dark" on any surveillance. The Administration will be required to submit a report on U.S.-person information collected and disseminated under the PAA authorities.

Summary of the RESTORE Act Manager's Amendment

· Clarifies that nothing in the Act or the amendments to the Act shall be construed to prohibit lawful surveillance necessary to:

Ø prevent Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda, or any other terrorist organization from attacking the U.S., any U.S. person, or any ally of the U.S.;

Ø ensure the safety and security of our Armed Forces or other national security or intelligence personnel;

Ø protect the U.S., any U.S. person, or any U.S. ally from the threat of WMD or any other threats to national security.

· Clarifies that the RESTORE Act shall not be construed to prohibit surveillance of, or grant any rights to undocumented aliens.

· NSA and other agencies can only disseminate U.S. person identifying information (e.g., the name, address, phone number of a U.S. person) to other government agencies if a Senior Executive determines that such dissemination is necessary to understand the value of the intelligence and to protect national security.

· Establishes criteria for the FISA Court to determine whether the "reverse targeting" guidelines sufficiently protect U.S. person communications intercepted by the NSA.

I've bolded the things that I thought would be of particular interest to everyone. Curious to know what everyone thinks once you've had a chance to peruse all of this. Am still reading the bill itself and the amendment information. And, as I said, I'll update as I get more information.

Just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has been phoning, FAXing, e-mailing and meeting personally on these issues -- you all have been wonderful, and it is very much appreciated by all of us at FDL, as well as by a whole host of folks who have been working on these issues on the Hill. You guys are the greatest!

UPDATE:  Am hearing that the Feingold Amendment that has passed was on basket/umbrella warrants and not immunity.  So it's a good thing, but they are still on Title I in the committee at this point from what I am hearing.  The telecom immunity won't come up until if and when they hit Title II of the bill mark-up.  More as I get it...

UPDATE #2:  Pertinent portion of the Feingold amendment that passed in the FISA mark-up this morning:  "the acquisition is limited to communications to which at least one party is a specific individual target who is reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States, and a significant purpose of the acquisition of the communications of any target is to obtain foreign intelligence information."  I am told the purpose of the amendment is to require that there is an individualized reason for the surveillance and to prevent bulk surveillance as McConnell testified the Protect America Act would allow when his congressional testimony was required on this.  The government is required to certify [to the Court, as I understand it, on application for the warrant] on this, as I understand it.  Will link up when it is available online.  More as I get it...