RTFA: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2276225,00.as…

Members approved H.R. 3773 by a vote of 213 to 197 Friday afternoon after a battle over whether members should vote on a House or Senate version of the bill.

At issue is a warrantless surveillance program that helped the government more easily eavesdrop on suspected terrorists after Sept. 11. Telecommunications companies cooperated with the government, and allowed the National Security Agency access to their networks without any court intervention.

The Senate passed a FISA bill recently that would grant telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for participating in the program, but the House version would requires those companies to face the music in the courtroom.

President Bush has for weeks pressured the House to adopt the Senate version of the bill, and has pledged to veto any bill that does not include retroactive immunity. A temporary FISA extension expired on February 16.

Apparently, the telecom companies could only corrupt 197 house reps, which is less than 50%. Yes! Democracy works!

RTFA: http://feingold.senate.gov/issues_immunityfacts.ht…

S. 2248 would require the courts to throw out lawsuits alleging that telephone companies broke the law by participating in warrantless surveillance. If the immunity provision became law, even if it could be proven that telephone companies clearly and knowingly broke the law, they would not be held accountable, and Americans’ privacy rights would be nullified.

The Dodd-Feingold amendment would strike this automatic, retroactive immunity provision and leave it to the courts to determine whether the telephone companies acted properly and therefore deserve immunity.

Great set of points to memorize for those holiday dinner-time discussions.

Yep - straight from the internet tube: the Senate will pick this one up in January.

To quote Harry Reid, “in Nevada we don’t like wiretaps… we’re very private people, and I think that’s where America is.” He continued, “Because we believe this retroactive immunity needs to be studied very closely, it doesn’t mean we’re any less patriotic than anyone else.”

Dodd wrapped it up by quoting Frank Church, who chaired the initial FISA discussions: “Domestic surveillance activities threaten to undermine our democratic society… Personal privacy is protected because it is essential to our liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Current as of 1638PST. They’re working late in DC, tonight!

Senator Dodd has promised to lead the charge against Telecom Immunity, and it appears this has begun. We’re watching the proceedings, in real-time, streaming from FedNet.

As of 1440PST, Dodd is walking through the individual arguments that have been offered in favor of immunity, and then he is debunking them.

[EDIT]
Scratch that - it’s just a threat. See the update.
[/EDIT]