Senate Intel Committee Votes Down NSA Spying Investigation

Committee Democrats Furious Over Vote

Democrats on the committee were furious, however. They had gone into the meeting expecting a vote in favor of an investigation.

Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., was visibly frustrated after the vote and called the deal "rank partisanship." He said today's vote against an investigation was proof that the White House controls the Intelligence Committee.

"Today was an important day. There was a lot at stake for our country and all Americans, but my Republican colleagues would prefer to operate in the dark," Rockefeller said.

Snowe countered that Rockefeller did not hear the phone calls in which the Republicans made demands of the White House. "We didn't seek their approval," she said.

Rockefeller said Democrats were excluded from all negotiations about this deal, and he criticized Republicans for offering legislation on the issue without knowing everything about it. Gonzales and Gen. Michael Hayden, the deputy director of national intelligence, partially briefed members of the Intelligence Committee last month, but Rockefeller said they left out key aspects of the program. In fact, he indicated that only just now, after spending a large portion of last week at the NSA, going over 450 questions with the staff there, does he truly understand the scope.

With this legislation, the program would not be retroactively authorized, according to its author, DeWine. It would be authorized as of the day the legislation is passed. But there would be no investigation of the program or its past use.

It was that point that particularly angered Rockefeller, who spoke passionately against this deal at the stakeout outside the closed meeting.

Rockefeller said the worst mistake Congress could make was altering FISA without understanding the White House program.