CQ reports (sub. req) that now, rank-and-file House Republicans are predicting that the White House-backed bill on the interrogation and prosecution of terror suspects could fail if brought to a full House vote next week, as scheduled. “I donât think the bill passes,” Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) told CQ. The publication says Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) agrees that the outcome of a full House vote is “no longer certain.”
It’s increasingly looking like both bills could go down in flames, CQ concludes:
[T]he growing reservations among Republicans toward Bushâs measure suggested that two of the partyâs principal legislative goals before Novemberâs midterm elections were in trouble. The other, made up of several bills that would provide a legal framework for a domestic surveillance program, is tied up in both the House and Senate and is not likely to move before the elections.
Update: Or maybe not. CNN reports: “The White House and GOP senators reached an agreement on a bill setting out procedures for interrogating terror suspects and trying them in front of military tribunals, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced Thursday.”
