By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. phone companies that took partin President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spyingprogram would receive retroactive immunity from lawsuits undera bill approved on Tuesday by the Democratic-led Senate.
But it was unclear if the Democratic-led House ofRepresentatives would also approve the legislation to shieldfirms from potentially billions of dollars in damages.
About 40 civil lawsuits have been filed accusing AT&T (),Verizon Communications () and Sprint Nextel () of violatingAmericans' privacy rights in helping the government'swarrantless domestic spying program started shortly after theSeptember 11 attacks on the United States.
Passed by the Senate on a largely party line vote, the billwould replace a temporary spy law set to expire this week thatexpanded the power of U.S. authorities to track enemy targetswithout a court order.
In addition, the Senate bill would bolster the protectionof privacy rights of law-abiding Americans swept up in the huntfor suspected terrorists.
"I don't know what they (House Democrats) are going to do,"said Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican and a chief sponsorof the bill. "I hope they pass it."
If the House rejects or fails to quickly pass the measure,the temporary law would expire on Saturday.
One option would be to approve a short-term extension ofthe law, as Congress and Bush did last month, to provide moretime to resolve their differences.
"Under discussion," a senior aide said when asked whatHouse Democrats leaders may do.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John Rockefeller ofWest Virginia broke ranks with many fellow Democrats in pushingto immunize phone companies. Yet he criticized Bush forstarting the spy program without congressional or courtapproval.
"Anger over the president's program should not prevent usfrom addressing the real problems that the president hascreated," Rockefeller said. He warned that without immunitysome private firms may decline to help protect the nation.
Those opposed to granting immunity argued the courts shoulddecide if the phone companies violated the law, and helpdetermine what Bush did in ordering the warrantlesssurveillance that was first exposed in December 2005 by The NewYork Times.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)requires that the government receive the approval of a secretFISA court to conduct surveillance in the United States ofsuspected foreign enemy targets.
Bush authorized warrantless surveillance of communicationsbetween people in the United States and others overseas if onehad suspected ties to terrorists.
(Editing by Lori Santos)
