Vote Coming Soon on House Dem Surveillance Bill

The House voted earlier today to clear the way for a final floor vote on the Restore Act — the Democratic proposal on domestic-to-foreign surveillance — by a margin of 223 to 196. The vote was mostly along party lines. Expect the final vote by late afternoon.

Its chances of ultimate approval are slim. President Bush today reiterated his opposition to anything more restrictive than this summer’s Protect America Act. AP:

Critics say the authorization would tie up intelligence agents in legal red tape, impeding them from conducting urgent surveillance of terrorist suspects. “Congress needs to move forward, not backward,” President Bush said at a news conference as the debate began.

Similarly, the ACLU today reaffirmed its opposition to the bill, even as Restore has won over some civil libertarians:

“The RESTORE Act does not live up to its name – it does not restore the Constitution,” said Director of the Washington Office Caroline Fredrickson. “When Americans are sitting in their living rooms making a phone call or sending an email, they should be able to rest assured that the government is not monitoring their phone call or collecting that email without just cause or an individual warrant.” Fredrickson added, “The RESTORE Act includes broad year-long basket warrants that require only minimum court oversight to collect the maximum amount of information. Basket warrants, by definition, are not warrants at all. They do not give Americans protections that the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Fourth Amendment. The colonists rose up against King George for the same type of government overreaching.”

The ACLU further telegraphed its impending opposition to Restore’s as-yet-unreleased Senate companion bill, calling it “reportedly worse on civil liberties issues.”