On Oct. 9, the House introduced two bills to reform the Protect America Act (PAA), passed in haste before Congress' August recess. PAA grants the government the authority to wiretap anyone, including U.S. citizens, without court approval as long as the "target" of the surveillance is reasonably believed to be located outside the country.

The Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007 (RESTORE Act) (H.R. 3773) was introduced by Reps. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The RESTORE Act would require a finding of probable cause for surveillance targeting American citizens, including Americans located overseas. The legislation would also permit a blanket order for surveillance of multiple foreign targets to be granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court but would require the Justice Department Inspector General to regularly report on the use of blanket orders and the number of U.S. persons' communications collected in the orders' use. The Justice Department Inspector General would also be required to audit the Terrorist Surveillance Program and other warrantless surveillance programs.

"Earlier this year, President Bush signed a short-term surveillance law that exposed innocent Americans' phone calls and emails to warrantless intrusion," stated Conyers. "Speaker Pelosi immediately asked us to fix this problem and to ensure court oversight while preserving our ability to fight against foreign threats. This bill shows that it is possible to protect civil liberties and fight terrorism at the same time."

President Bush reacted to the RESTORE Act on Oct. 10. "While the House bill is not final, my administration has serious concerns about some of its provisions, and I am hopeful that the deficiencies in the bill can be fixed," said Bush on the South Lawn of the White House. "The final bill must meet certain criteria: It must give our intelligence professionals the tools and flexibility they need to protect our country. It must keep the intelligence gap firmly closed, and ensure that protections intended for the American people are not extended to terrorists overseas who are plotting to harm us. And it must grant liability protection to companies who are facing multi-billion-dollar lawsuits only because they are believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend our nation following the 9/11 attacks."

The civil liberties community predominately supports the RESTORE Act with some reservations regarding its allowance of blanket orders for overseas surveillance. "We welcome the [RESTORE Act] as an important first step towards restoring civil liberties protections lost in August," stated Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies. "The RESTORE Act contains important privacy protections the administration has unreasonably opposed. However, Fourth Amendment rights and national security can only be fully protected with individualized warrants."

Mark Agrast of the Center for American Progress said that H.R. 3773 "would begin to restore checks and balances to the means by which the government conducts electronic surveillance of the international communications of Americans."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), however, opposes the RESTORE Act. "The RESTORE Act does not require individualized court orders for anything collected under the new surveillance program," stated Caroline Frederickson of the ACLU. "The program can collect any communication as long as one leg of it is overseas, leaving open the distinct possibility--and probability--that the other leg is here in the U.S. and is an American. If Americans' communications are swept up by this new, general program warrant, there is no requirement that a court actually review whether those communications are seized in compliance with the Fourth Amendment."

The ACLU instead fully supports the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Modernization Act of 2007 (H.R. 3782), introduced by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ). The bill reaffirms that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is the exclusive means for collecting foreign intelligence and requires individualized warrants for foreign intelligence collection activities.

The House Judiciary Committee passed the RESTORE Act today, Oct. 10, by a vote of 20-14, and the House Intelligence Committee passed the bill, 12-7. The legislation is scheduled to go to the floor of the House the week of Oct. 15. No Senate bills have been introduced, but there is great concern within the civil liberties community that a Senate bill may include retroactive immunity for the telecommunications industry, a provision that is strongly advocated by the White House and is excluded from the two House bills. The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to mark up an expected bill on Oct. 18.