The US Senate website is not publishing the roll call of votes by Senators on the bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act making President George W. Bush's illegal wiretapping order retroactively legal.
Thomas, the online legislative information portal from the Library of Congress, provides links to the roll call of votes by both chambers of Congress.
While the House of Representatives' website gives details of how each member voted, the Senate website just displays the message "Results of roll call votes are published here approximately an hour after they have been announced." even though the vote took place more than two days ago.
Civil liberties groups harshly criticized the passage of the Protect America Act in the Senate by a vote of 60 to 28, and by 227 to 183 in the House.
“We are deeply disappointed that the president’s tactics of fearmongering have once again forced Congress into submission,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “That a Democratically-controlled Senate would be strong-armed by the Bush administration is astonishing. This Congress may prove to be as spineless in standing up to the Bush Administration as the one that enacted the Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act.”
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