The bill overhauls rules on secret government eavesdropping and shields phone companies from lawsuits for their role in the program. Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, sided with 69 other senators from both parties, including Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, in support of The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Harkin, a Democrat from Cumming, voted with 27 Democrats in opposition.

In supporting the bill, Grassley called the bipartisan passage of FISA an important step to ensuring law enforcement agencies have the tools they need to protect national security.

“This update [to FISA] is critically important to bring these tools up to date with today’s technology,” he said in a statement.

Grassley also emphasized that civil liberties had to be respected in the process.

Harkin said that while the intelligence community must have the tools they need to monitor and track terrorists, the rights of American citizens who have done nothing wrong must be protected.

“That is why I could not support this bill which does not appropriately safeguard the privacy rights of Americans – both at home and abroad,” he said in a statement. “Moreover, I could not support a bill that has the effect of granting immunity to telecom companies that knowingly violated the constitutional rights of Americans. Companies that broke the law should not get a free pass.”

The vote came two and a half years after public disclosure of the wiretapping program set off a fierce national debate over the balance between protecting the country from another terrorist strike and ensuring civil liberties.

More than 40 lawsuits have been filed in federal court charging major telecommunication companies, like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications, with violating customers’ privacy by conducting wiretaps at the White House’s direction without court orders.

This bill effectively ends those lawsuits. It is now on its way to the president, who has said he will sign it.

An analysis by Maplight.org, a nonprofit campaign-finance watchdog group, found that Democratic lawmakers who switched and voted in support of the bill averaged roughly twice the donations from the nation’s leading telecommunication companies as those voting against it.

The 94 Democrats who changed their position averaged $8,359 in donations from the three leading telecom companies, Verizon Communications, Sprint Nextel Corp. and AT&T Inc.

Iowa’s congressional delegation split on the bill, with Democrat Boswell joining Republicans Steve King and Tom Latham to support the bill and Democrats Dave Loebsack and Bruce Braley voting against.

According to documents filed with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), this year Boswell received $5,000 from Verizon and $5,000 from AT&T. Braley received $1,000 in 2007 from Verizon and $2,000 from AT&T in 2007. Loebsack received no donations from PACs representing the three companies.

Iowa’s other two Democrats, Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack, voted against the bill but were on the short side of the 293-129 roll call. (Loebsack was back in Washington after missing some votes to deal with flood issues in his 2nd District.) Republicans Tom Latham and Steve King joined all but one Republican in support of passage.Boswell was one of 21 “Blue Dog” conservative Democrats who signed a Jan. 28 letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsing the Republican version of the FISA bill. The issue was mentioned in Ed Fallon’s primary challenge to Boswell, but got buried in mountains of mailings attacking Fallon for backing Ralph Nader in 2000.

The bill now moves to the Senate where a similar bill has passed. The House leadership version passed its own version in November which did not include retroactive immunity, but it stalled in the Senate under threats from President Bush, who has said he will veto any bill without the immunity provision.

Boswell and other self-described Blue Dogs are bucking Democratic leadership and joining with House Republicans to keep the retroactive immunity provision the Bush Administration wants. 

The Protect America Act, a stopgap measure, has been in place since a classified ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reportedly imposed limitations on the government’s warrantless eavesdropping activities. The Protect America Act was meant to allow the federal government to continue ongoing investigations while Congress crafted a more permanent Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and it had a six-month sunset provision. That’s set to expire on Friday.

On Jan. 28, Boswell was one of 21 Blue Dogs who signed a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsing the Republican version of the FISA bill. The Senate bill “contains satisfactory language addressing all these issues,” they wrote, “and we would fully support that measure should it reach the House floor without substantial change.” House Democrats passed their version, called the RESTORE Act (if you like acronyms, that’s Responsible Electronic Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective), 227-189 in November. The House plan does not include retroactive immunity. Iowa’s delegation split on party lines at that time, with Democrats Boswell, Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack for and Republicans Steve King and Tom Latham opposed.

But President Bush says he’ll veto any FISA bill that doesn’t include retroactive immunity, and the administration has fought hard for the provision in the evenly divided Senate. Senate progress stalled in December thanks to an effort led by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who interrupted his presidential campaign two weeks before the Iowa caucuses to filibuster the Senate version until Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., shelved the bill. Temporarily, as it turned out.

With Friday’s deadline looming, Dodd and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., offered an amendment Tuesday to remove retroactive immunity, but failed on a 67-31 vote. Iowa’s Tom Harkin supported the amendment while Chuck Grassley was opposed. (Of the presidential candidates, John McCain opposed the amendment, Barack Obama supported it and Hillary Clinton missed the vote.)

Dodd called the Senate’s vote “the single largest invasion of privacy in American history.”

So now the action returns to the House. “There will be little, if any, time for conference” to reconcile the House and Senate versions, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. With 15 of the 21 Blue Dogs, the Republicans can win passage even in a Democratic House, but with seven of them, Pelosi and the Democratic leadership can block passage.

Democrats tried to buy time with a three-week extension, but lost that vote 229-191 Wednesday night against a unanimous Republican vote. Thirty-four Democrats voted with the Republicans. That included Boswell and the Blue Dogs, plus a collection of progressives who oppose the entire Protect America Act, such as Dennis Kucinich.

Matt Browner Hamlin, formerly of Dodd’s presidential campaign, examined campaign contributions and found that all 21 House Blue Dogs had received money from telecommunications PACs. Boswell got $5,000 from AT&T.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democratic presidential hopeful, won’t be campaigning today in Iowa, New Hampshire or any of the other early states. He won’t be hosting a fundraiser or on a conference call with campaign staff. Today, Dodd will stand on the floor of the United States Senate, for hours if need be, to defend the Constitution and make good on a promise.

If necessary, Dodd will launch a filibuster to ensure telecom immunity is not a part of the re-authorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) bill. Dodd has promised to start talking and not stop until he either loses a cloture vote or Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, refuses any bill that contains retroactive immunity for the telecom corporations that provided unmitigated access without warrants to the current White House administration’s program of domestic wiretapping.

Fellow Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have said they will support Dodd’s filibuster; however, calls into their Iowa press offices yielded conflicting answers. Obama’s press office said that the Illinois Senator will not be traveling to Washington, D.C. today to participate in the filibuster. Representatives with the New York Senator said that, at this time, they were unsure if she would be traveling to the Beltway to participate. A request for information from the Delaware Senator’s campaign office in Iowa has gone unanswered.

“There were many who said that they would stand with Chris Dodd as he stood up to the President and for our national security, but they are not there today,” said Hari Sevugan, Dodd communications director. “And that’s disappointing because now is a time for leadership that doesn’t just talk about change but acts on it.”

Dodd has postponed all planned campaign events in Iowa for Monday and Tuesday and is also prepared to offer an amendment that strips the retroactive immunity provision from the underlying bill. If that and other routes fail, Dodd will begin the filibuster.

“Last fall the American people gave this Congress a mandate to change the direction of the country and restore America’s security by ending the war and restoring our Constitution and standing in the world,” Dodd said. “Unfortunately, time and again, Congress has been unable to fulfill that mandate. But our country can no longer afford to continue down that road; we need to restore the Constitution, protect our civil liberties and ensure that no one is above the law. It’s time for us to stand up and lead; not just say ‘enough is enough,’ but act on it.”

Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold and Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy will support Dodd during the filibuster. Representatives in Tom Harkin’s office said the Iowa Senator remains undecided on if he will join the filibuster. An inquiry left with Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office has not been returned.

To close debate, opponents of the filibuster will need to gather 60 votes. This means at least 10 Democratic Senators will need to join with Republicans in order to bring an end to Dodd’s filibuster.

Because Dodd will need material to read while on the Senate floor — during a filibuster he will not be allowed to stop talking or take a break — both Crooks and Liars and firedoglake are taking comments that will be forwarded to Dodd’s Senate office and, if necessary, read on the floor. Comments may also be left on the Chris Dodd for President website. In addition, several blogs have teamed up to show their support of Dodd and his efforts to launch the filibuster.

In addition to his reading, Dodd will be able to take “questions” from others, but such questions are limited to 20 minutes. It is believed that Kennedy and Feingold will be participating in this exercise.

Senator Dodd was the first presidential candidate to speak out against the FISA legislation that was passed out of the Intelligence Committee, announcing that he would place a hold on any bill that reached the floor including retroactive immunity, and would filibuster that bill if his hold was not respected. Dodd began urging Senators on the Judiciary Committee, who would have the chance to consider the measure as well, to oppose the immunity provision. The Committee later passed out a bill without the retroactive immunity. Unfortunately, that bill is not the one considered on the Senate floor.

“You don’t demonstrate leadership in the footnotes of a press release, or parroting responses from focus groups,” said Dodd’s Director of Media Technologies Tim Tagaris in an email to supporters. “Leadership is demonstrated through action.”