Specter Warns White House of Wiretap Funding Cutoff

[kurth]

Wiretap Funding Cutoff Is Warned
Specter says power of the purse may have to be used to compel an end to domestic surveillance.
By Greg Miller, Times Staff Writer
April 28, 2006

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday he might seek to block funding of a domestic eavesdropping program in an effort to force the Bush administration to answer lawmakers' questions about the operation. In a warning to the White House, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said he planned to introduce legislation that would cut off funds for the surveillance program, which he described as a threat to civil liberties and a violation of domestic espionage laws.

Specter said he was not yet prepared to support a cutoff of funding, which he said would be a measure of last resort. But he warned that if the Bush administration was unwilling to comply with existing laws or help draft new domestic surveillance legislation, the only way for Congress to exercise any control might be to deny funding.

"What's the use of passing another statute if the president won't pay any attention to it?" Specter said. "When you talk about withholding funds, there you're talking about a real authority."

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Specter said he had informed Bush of his intention to consider legislation that would deny funding for the program. Specter was particularly critical of Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, saying that his testimony on the spying program before the Judiciary Committee had been so unresponsive that it would be pointless to call him to testify again.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-nsa28apr28,1,7195483.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

[htuttle]

1. Nice try, but Bush will just take money from somewhere else

Just like he diverted much of the money for Afghanistan into planning a war in Iraq.

When the President breaks the law with impunity like this over and over again, the only thing to be done is to fire him.

[rep the dems]

2. Even so

I'm glad to see Specter standing up to him. He's probably the only republican in congress willing to challenge Bush. McCain pretends to, but then supports him wholeheartedly the next day.