"Most of the bill is secret." - Democratic Underground

madfloridian

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Fri Oct-05-07 03:28 PM
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"Most of the bill is secret."

Democrats hold both houses of Congress. One of the last things I expected to see was a statement like that in an AP article.

All we have done since last November is keep an eye out, send out emails, make phone calls....while our own party leaders try to slip bills though in secret.

Senate Approves Intelligence Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has scrapped its bid to obtain the archive of daily intelligence briefings given to the president on Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion. That request was among several controversial provisions dropped from an intelligence bill, leading to the measure's unanimous Senate passage Wednesday.

The provision sought to give the Senate and House intelligence committees access to all presidential daily briefs between 1997 and 2003 that referred to Iraq — an attempt to determine whether the White House mischaracterized intelligence prior to the war. Senate Republicans objected, saying the documents had already been reviewed by an independent commission, according to a congressional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The final version of the bill also dropped a requirement that the director of national intelligence conduct an assessment of the effects of global climate change on national security. The overall legislation would give Congress' approval for the whole range of intelligence programs over the coming year, including spy satellites and eavesdropping, human spying and battlefield collection, along with recommended spending levels. Most of the bill is secret.

The House approved its own version of the bill in May, and the two chambers now must work out differences between the two versions.

While we were hearing in the press how they were standing up, they were capitulating.

And since most of the bill is secret we really don't know what's in it after all.

And now we are having to watch and send mail and make phone calls by the ACLU, that the legislation to give Bush more power is coming in the next few weeks.

But since so much is secret now, we won't know when it happens.

Critical votes within 3 weeks could grant vast new spying powers to Bush

It’s October and before this month is over, we’ll know which members of Congress stood up for civil liberties and which ones failed freedom. Our job now is to put them on notice — before they vote — that we won’t tolerate wavering, waffling, or wimping out.

The ACLU’s Don’t Wait for ’08 campaign — a 100-day effort urging Congress to restore liberties lost during the relentless Bush assault on our rights — is at a critical “make-or-break” point with FISA votes coming as early as next week. Unbelievably, there’s a push to make permanent the vast new spying powers that Congress gave to the President for a six-month period that ends in February, 2008.

Help us continue the FISA Flood of 2007 by overwhelming Congress with your voice demanding immediate action to defend freedom. Write. Call. Demand Action. Make noise now before our rights are stripped away permanently.

Well, I am not sure we will actually know anymore. So much is done in secret.