Senate Judiciary Committee

WASHINGTON -- Despite some congressional criticism of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program, lawmakers appear unlikely to challenge it this year without new pressure to do so, national security analysts and some members of Congress say. That leaves legal challenges, which have already begun moving through the courts, as the most likely venue for public scrutiny of the program, they say. As a result, experts say, little may...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate heard the first detailed arguments on the merits of formally censuring President Bush during a frequently testy committee hearing yesterday that highlighted Republican opposition and Democratic ambivalence toward the idea. Five legal experts appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the resolution that Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, introduced to censure Bush for authorizing a spying program by the National Security Agency that operates without court warrants.

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert indicated yesterday he was willing to consider a guest worker program as part of the immigration-reform package now moving through Congress. Meanwhile, the Senate began debate on immigration reform with the split between senators who support a new path to legalization for undocumented immigrants and those opposed on full display. In comments to reporters, Hastert, an Illinois Republican, did not embrace the idea of a guest worker program such as that contained in legislation approved earlier this week by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Few controversies during George W. Bush's presidency have called out more desperately for his leadership than the sharply divisive, highly emotional debate over immigration reform. Yet Mr. Bush has spent so much of his political capital on the disastrous war in Iraq that he comes to this clash of economic interests, security concerns and humanitarian values all but bankrupt. Just at a time when the president should be marshaling his resources to forge a compromise, Mr. Bush's standing and credibility with the American people - even among his fellow Republicans - are at a historic low. Andrew H. Card Jr.'s decision to step down after 5 1/2 years as White House chief of staff isn't likely to quiet Republican calls for new faces and new ideas.

Wisely, President Bush didn't dwell on how the updated - and still misnamed - Patriot Act he signed into law last week would "safeguard the civil liberties of our people," because it doesn't. Despite a year of wrangling, and a few grand moments in the Senate, the final version of the measure imposes no meaningful restraints on the vast power Congress granted the government to spy on its own citizens in the fear-ridden wake of the 9/11 attacks. In some ways, the new law is worse. Not even the secret seizure of library, medical and business records without probable cause was adequately addressed, though American communities found that provision so offensive that nearly 400 so far have registered formal protests, including Baltimore, Greenbelt and Takoma Park.

WASHINGTON -- Proposals for erecting more barriers on the nation's southern border received a significant boost yesterday as a Senate committee continued its work on an overhaul of immigration legislation. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved proposals to erect double- and triple-layered fencing near Arizona border cities and to commission a study on the feasibility of more extensive fencing along the other parts of the border. The measures received bipartisan support, each passing with just one dissenting vote.

WASHINGTON -- A year ago, Alberto R. Gonzales sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee as the Bush administration's nominee for attorney general and a potential candidate for the Supreme Court. He will return tomorrow in drastically different circumstances to testify as the chief legal defender of a domestic eavesdropping operation that has touched off a stormy debate over its legality. Gonzales, who as White House counsel provided legal support for the program of surveillance without warrants, is scheduled to be the sole witness before a panel led by Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, who has made clear his skepticism about the administration's legal rationale.

House of Delegates convenes at 10 a.m. Senate convenes at 10 a.m. Hearings of interest: The Senate Finance Committee receives a briefing at 8:45 a.m. on the Constellation Energy-FPL Group merger. The House Economic Matters committee receives the same briefing at 10:45 a.m. The Senate Judiciary Committee hears testimony on legislation (SB 136) that would add commercial photographic processors and forensic computer analysts to the list of people such as teachers and police officers who are required to report suspected child abuse to state officials.

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee warned Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers yesterday that members will ask whether she would act independently of President Bush. Issues of executive power will surface in confirmation hearings "in light of your close relationship with the president and the key positions you have held in the White House," Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, wrote in a letter to Miers. Hearings are scheduled to start Nov. 7. The nominee, meanwhile, continued private meetings with senators, including a Louisiana Republican who issued a less-than-enthusiastic comment afterward.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers, troubled by a lack of enthusiasm on Capitol Hill, ran into more rough ground yesterday when senators from both parties rejected her responses to a questionnaire as "insufficient." Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and ranking Democrat Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont complained that her answers were at best incomplete - Leahy said some lawmakers considered them "insulting" - and asked Miers to provide more detail, especially about her work in the White House as counsel to President Bush.