Reply #9: Specter to shepherd bills through Senate

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, March 22, 2006 · Last updated 5:56 p.m. PT

Specter to shepherd bills through Senate

By KATHERINE SHRADER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- A vocal Republican critic of the Bush administration's eavesdropping program will preside over Senate efforts to write the program into law, but he was pessimistic Wednesday that the White House wanted to listen.

"They want to do just as they please, for as long as they can get away with it," Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think what is going on now without congressional intervention or judicial intervention is just plain wrong."
(snip)

But, Specter said, the committees haven't gotten full briefings on the program, instead choosing to create small subcommittees for the work.

"The intelligence committees ought to exercise their statutory authority on oversight, but they aren't," Specter said. "The Judiciary Committee has acted. We brought in the attorney general. We had a second hearing with a series of experts, and we are deeply involved in it."

Specter added that his words should not be seen as critical of Roberts, but rather the administration for not briefing the full committees.
(snip/...)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Specter_Eavesdropping.html