FISA Fight: House vote update

The House is still wrangling with the budget bill, now on the Republican substitute. When they finish up work on the budget, the House will recess for a few hours for a sweep of the chamber in preparation for a secret session requested by minority whip Roy Blunt so that Republicans can "present information about the current spying debate that cannot be publicly discussed."

To which Chairman Conyers responded (by e-mail):

"The more my colleagues know, the less they believe this Administration's rhetoric. As someone who has chaired classified hearings and reviewed classified materials on this subject, I believe the more information Members receive about this Administration's actions in the area of warrantless surveillance, the more likely they are to reject the Administration's scare tactics and threats.  My colleagues who joined me in the hearings and reviewed the Administration's documents have walked away with an inescapable conclusion: the Administration has not made the case for unprecedented spying powers and blanket retroactive immunity for phone companies.

"Whether this is a worthwhile exercise or mere grandstanding depends on whether Republicans have groundbreaking new information that would affect the legislative process. There must be a very high bar to urge the House into a secret session for the first time in 25 years. I eagerly await their presentation to see if it clears this threshold. As someone who has seen and heard an enormous amount of information already, I have my doubts."

Amusingly enough, this was the response of the Republicans when a group of progressive Democrats asked for a secret session on FISA early on in the debate:

Boehner’s spokesman, Kevin Smith, derided the secret session proposal as a stalling tactic.

"There are clear rules and procedures for how Congress handles classified information," Smith said. "This nonsense is nothing more than another stalling tactic from a bunch of liberals who don’t want to give our intelligence officials all the tools they need to keep America safe."

Heh. Nonsense and a stall tactic. The Republicans as they can see that they're losing on this round, and it would appear that the Dem leadership are going along with it to rub their noses in it.

Nonetheless, this could push the debate and vote on FISA to tomorrow. Look for updates here as necessary.

Update: Word from leadership staff is that the debate and vote will be tomorrow.

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