Feingold “Pleased” with Surveillance Bill Deal

Here’s a statement just out from Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) on the deal:

“I am pleased that Republicans have finally backed down from their efforts to ram a deeply flawed FISA bill through the Senate without votes on amendments. We all agree that FISA needs to be updated so our government can go after the foreign communications of suspected terrorists. But we must not provide overly broad and unnecessary powers that infringe on the rights and privacy of law-abiding Americans, especially to an administration that has proven it cannot be trusted. Next week, we have an opportunity to fix this bill, but only if senators stand up to the administration’s attempted power grab and support my and other amendments to put in place checks and balances. If the final bill produced by the Senate doesn’t protect the privacy of law abiding Americans or if it includes immunity for telecom companies, I will strongly oppose it and will vote against cutting off debate on it.”

Some explanation about what he’s referring to at the end there. After the Senate votes on all of the amendments, there will be a vote on whether to invoke cloture. That’s part of the deal. 60 senators will have to support that for the bill to move to its final vote. What Feingold is saying is that he will vote against that final motion to invoke cloture if certain key amendments don’t pass.