Reject wiretapping bill.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Congress has shown appallingly little backbone in response to President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. After last Tuesday's election, both Democrats and Republicans have an opportunity to stiffen their spines by rejecting the White House's efforts to push a bill authorizing the domestic spying program through the lame-duck session of Congress that starts this week.

Instead of approving the wiretapping legislation and retroactive legal protections that Bush wants, lawmakers should demand that the administration stop stonewalling on requests for information about the details of the National Security Agency program. They should also ask the president to explain his brazenly unilateral decision to ignore the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and to trample constitutional principles relating to warrants and the separation of powers.

That won't be easy for the current Congress, which has abdicated its constitutional oversight role to accommodate the president's expansive view of the executive branch's power in the war on terror. That's one of the main reasons why voters gave control of both the House and the Senate to Democrats.

After the election, Bush declared that passage of a bill authorizing the current NSA program is an "important priority in the war on terror." But a more important priority is for Congress to reassert its critical role of oversight with respect to the executive branch's handling of that war.

The bill that Bush wants was introduced earlier this year by Sen. Arlen Specter, the outgoing Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Specter was one of the few Republicans to confront the White House when the snooping program's existence was first disclosed, even bluntly informing the president in person that he "doesn't have a blank check" on domestic wiretapping.

But since then, Specter has been a disappointment. He worked with Vice President Dick Cheney's attorneys to produce a bill that would do little to ensure independent oversight of the NSA program, while leaving the president free to conduct future wiretapping of Americans without court approval. Specter's bill would also provide the president with retroactive legal cover for any illegal surveillance activities he may have authorized.

Instead of requiring oversight of domestic spying by the secret federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Specter's bill would make such review optional. It also would apply to any other illegal government surveillance activities that Americans don't know about - yet.

The White House has given private briefings to congressional leaders, but lawmakers know far too little about the NSA program to make an informed decision. The administration also has yet to explain why it cannot conduct the same surveillance activities under existing law.

In the wake of last week's election, Congress must not rubber-stamp the Bush administration's extralegal surveillance activities. Lawmakers should refuse to approve Specter's bill, and, after the new Democratic majority assumes control in January, should investigate the NSA program and make certain the government conducts no future wiretaps without warrants.

The next Congress faces a huge challenge in repairing the damage that President Bush and one-party rule have caused this nation over the past six years. Lawmakers can get a good head start in the lame duck session by standing their ground on domestic surveillance.