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Surveillance bill filibuster falls short in Senate CNN An effort to block a wide-ranging overhaul of U.S. wiretapping laws failed in the Senate on Wednesday, with opponents mustering only 15 votes against the bill in a procedural vote. Language that appears likely to let telecommunications companies escape lawsuits over the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program drew sharp opposition from liberal Democrats such as Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold. Feingold said the bill would be a "get out of jail free" card for companies that went along with a program critics say was illegal, and would give the government sweeping powers to spy on Americans. "This legislation is going to be remembered as the legislation in which Congress granted the executive branch the power to sweep up all of our international communications, with very few controls or oversight," he said. Eighty senators, including most Democrats, joined Republicans in voting to move the bill forward. The vote was well beyond the 60 needed to break the threat of a filibuster. The House of Representatives voted last week to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires a secret court to sign off on domestic electronic surveillance in intelligence cases. The law was passed in 1978 in response to Watergate-era wiretapping abuses.
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