White House threatens veto of wiretap bill

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House threatened to veto wiretap legislation a day before Wednesday's planned vote in Congress, and said that restrictions on government authority would hamper its fight against terrorism.

The measure "falls far short of providing the intelligence community with the tools it needs to collect foreign intelligence effectively from individuals outside the United States," the White House budget office said on Tuesday.

It said National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell and other advisers would recommend that President George W. Bush veto the bill if passed in its current form.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is due to vote on the legislation on Wednesday. It would set rules for the warrantless surveillance of foreigners and safeguards over the rights of Americans in their international conversations.

The bill is intended as a successor to temporary legislation the Bush administration pushed through in August as urgently needed to plug legal gaps that were creating unnecessary obstacles in terrorism probes under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

But many Democrats say that the temporary law, which expires in February, gave the government too much power to listen in on the calls of innocent Americans.

The legislation being considered by the House would give authorities the tools they need while protecting the constitutional rights of Americans, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters.

"One of the principle tenets of the Constitution ... was to ensure that King George cannot listen in, come into their homes without probable cause," Hoyer said.