NSA Bill Unlikely To Be Voted On or Maybe It Will?

Congress is not likely to pass bills that drastically re-write the nation's surveillance laws and transfer court challenges to the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program to a secret court, according to CBS News.

House of Representatives and Senate versions of the legislation differ too much to bridge the gap by week's end, when Congress recesses until after the Nov. 7 elections, according to two Republican leadership aides who demanded anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced. [...]

The Senate bill, struck by an agreement between Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and the White House, is being reviewed by the Intelligence Committee and is unlikely to receive a floor vote this week, the aides said.

[Rep. Heather] Wilson's bill would impose more restrictions than the Senate bill on a president who seeks to wiretap terror suspects making calls or e-mails from the United States to other countries.

But the subscription-only Congressional Daily's Christian Bourge writes that:

Timing for Senate action on the tribunals and NSA bills remains up in the air as it is unclear whether Majority Leader Frist will combine the two measures or take them up separately. Three bills reflecting both possibilities have been introduced and a spokesman for Frist said no decision has been made but that a vote will come, likely late in the week.

So who knows at this point?

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