President Bush slammed House Democrats on Thursday for not passing the bill and for allowing the expiration of a law that temporarily broadened the government surveillance powers.

"Unfortunately, instead of holding a vote on the good bipartisan bill that passed the United States Senate, they introduced a partisan bill that would undermine America's security," President Bush said in a statement Thursday morning. "This bill is unwise. The House leaders know that the Senate will not pass it. And even if the Senate did pass it, they know I will veto it."

President Bush has threaten to veto any bill that does not grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that allowed access to their networks.

Retroactive immunity has never before been granted wholesale to companies. The current FISA law, passed in 1978, came after a similar investigation by Congress into government eavesdropping on telegraph communications under Project Shamrock and the Watergate breakins. Congress considered retroactive immunity for the companies that cooperated with U.S. intelligence agencies at the request of the Ford Administration, but the proposal failed.

Just as the Church Commission investigated excesses of the intelligence community and executive branch, the bi-partisan commission called for by the House bill would investigate the latest surveillance apparatus, said Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

"This is history literally repeating itself," Sparapani said. "It is mass, untargeted surveillance of the entire communications stream. From our point of view, we think it is no different."

In denying the Bush Administration's strong position on retroactive immunity, the House Judiciary Committee members cited a number of issues that made immunity unnecessary, chief among them that telecommunications companies already do have immunity to prosecution under many circumstances, such as if they can provide a statement from the Attorney General that no warrant was required for the information turned over to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Other issues with the Bush Administration's arguments included that different carriers had different responses to the administration's request for access to communications, that the legal case was not clear at the time the surveillance requests were made. Moreover, and that the Bush Administration used no single legal justification for asking for surveillance capabilities from the telecommunications firms without first getting a warrant as required by FISA. The Judiciary Committee members also underscored that important legal issues remain and need to be ruled upon by the courts.

"The House leadership deserves real credit," the ACLU's Sparapani stated. "For not budging on immunity, and that's important, given that they have been under relentless assault by the White House bully pulpit."

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