Senate advances eavesdropping shield bill

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A bill that would shield telecommunications firms from lawsuits for assisting the government's eavesdropping program advanced for a full U.S. Senate vote.

By a 76-to-10 vote Monday, the Senate overcame a procedural maneuver and voted to move the bill along for consideration on the Senate floor, The New York Times reported. The bill would protect communications companies from being sued for cooperating with the National Security Agency's secret program of listening in on conversations without a warrant.

"For the last six years, our largest telecommunications companies have been spying on their own American customers," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who tried to block the bill's advancement. "Secretly and without a warrant, they delivered to the federal government the private, domestic communications records of millions of Americans."

The vote, however, doesn't mean floor consideration is automatic, the Times said. A different bill that doesn't include immunity, was expected to be introduced by the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Whatever bill passes the Senate must be reconciled with the U.S. House of Representatives version, which doesn't include immunity.

The measures are meant to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, scheduled to expire in February.