WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday rejected a Democratic measure that would have extended an expiring spy law for three weeks, a vote that gave President George W. Bush a victory on the issue.
By a vote of 191-229, the House rejected the temporaryextension that Bush threatened to veto.
The president instead backs a bill passed by the Senate onTuesday that would shield telecommunication companies frompotentially billions of dollars in civil damages and expand thegovernment's powers to track suspected terrorists.
House Democrats argued unsuccessfully that they needed thethree weeks to review and possibly offer revisions to the WhiteHouse-backed bill.
Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Republican leader JohnBoehner of Ohio, said after the vote, "Maybe this is just their(some Democrats') message to their leadership, 'Hey let's justpass the Senate bill.'"
House leaders will have to decide their next step quickly,as the current surveillance law is set to expire on Saturday.
About 40 civil lawsuits have been filed accusing AT&T,Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel of violatingAmericans' privacy rights in helping the warrantless domesticspying program started shortly after the September 11 attacks.
The Senate passed-bill would replace the 6-month-oldProtect America Act, set to expire on Saturday, that broadenedthe ability of U.S. authorities to eavesdrop on enemy targetswithout a court order. It also provides new protection of civilliberties of Americans swept up in the hunt for terrorists.
Republicans argued the U.S. intelligence community neededlong-term surveillance legislation to guide their actions.
"Another extension represents a failure by the Housemajority to protect the American people," argued Rep. LamarSmith of Texas, the senior Republican on the House JudiciaryCommittee.
Republicans are expected to try to paint Democrats as beingsoft on national security in this year's congressional andpresidential campaigns.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, a MichiganDemocrat, accused the Bush administration of "bluster andfear-mongering," and several Democrats said Republicans justwanted to protect telecommunication companies that may haveknowingly violated the law at the behest of the Bushadministration.
(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Richard Cowan, Donna Smith,Matt Spetalnick, Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by David Alexander)
