President Bush is urging Congress to rewrite the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it easier for the government to secretly monitor overseas and some domestic communications. On Saturday, in his weekly radio address, Bush said the FISA Act needs to be modernized.

President Bush: “It seeks to restore FISA to its original focus on protecting the privacy interests of people inside the United States, so we don’t have to obtain court orders to effectively collect foreign intelligence about foreign targets located in foreign locations. … It allows the government to work more efficiently with private-sector entities like communications providers, whose help is essential.”

Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin accused President Bush of trying to exploit the threat from al-Qaeda to push the bill. Feingold said the measure was an “egregious power grab that includes broad new powers that have nothing to do with bringing FISA up to date.” The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the bill in part because it would give immunity from criminal prosecution and civil liability for the telecommunication companies that participate in the NSA program.