Senate Republicans and the administration must agree to a temporary extension of the current wiretap laws, or lose the powers to wiretap inside the United States without court orders, an exasperated Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday.

The president has to make a decision. He's either going to extend the law --- which is temporary in nature, or there will be no wiretapping. [...]

If it fails, he can give all the speeches he wants, including the State of the Union, about how we've stopped things, if he does that, it's disingenuous, and it's not true.

Reid issued the statement to the National Press Club Friday, following a Thursday power move by Republicans who refused to allow votes on amendments to an Administration-approved wiretapping bill that came from the Senate Judiciary Intelligence Committee.

That bill grants retroactive immunity to the telecoms that helped the Administration for five years with its warrantless wiretapping program and largely legalizes that same program.

The Senate was rushing to complete work on the bill since on February 1, the nation's spies lose their abilities to force domestic telephone and internet companies to install taps in their services. Those powers were handed to the government in rush legislation known as the Protect America Act passed by Congress this summer.

Although a procedural vote is set for Monday at 4:30 pm on the Senate legislation, Reid told reporters on Friday that there was no chance to get that bill passed and worked out in compromise with the House and to the President for his signature by February 1.

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) has promised to filibuster any bill with immunity for telecoms and proved his determination in December, when he forced Reid to scuttle debate on the same legislation. Dodd approves of a competing measure of the Senate Judiciary committee, but that bill failed by a vote of 60 to 34 on Thursday.

The House version does not include immunity and more sharply limits how the nation's spies can operate inside the United States without getting approval for their actions from a secret spying court.

Reid says he's willing to support an extension to the summer law for as short as a couple of weeks to as long as 18 months.

President Bush is widely expected to lambaste Congress on the spying issue during Monday night's State of the Union speech.

Via Huffington Post

(Read Original Article - Via Threat Level.)