A landmark terrorist surveillance bill cleared Congress Wednesday, ending nearly a year of debate over how best to balance safety and civil rights in going forward with government eavesdropping using access to U.S. phone companies to target persons overseas.
Twenty Democrats, including
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, supported the measure despite continued resistance from Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Obama’s former rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
The 69-28 Senate roll call followed the defeat of three last challenges to a provision giving retroactive immunity to carriers that cooperated with President Bush when he ordered the post-9/11 surveillance outside the rules set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978.
