House Democrats who voted last week to give telecommunications companies legal immunity for their participation in an illegal warrantless domestic surveillance program received PAC contributions from Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. According to MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan organization that works to illuminate the connections between campaign contributions and legislation, House Democrats who “changed” their votes on immunity received an average of $8,359 each in PAC contributions from telecommunications companies compared to $4,897 who voted against immunity. The survey compares the House’s March 14 vote when House Democrats rejected immunity to the June 20 vote when 94 Democrats changed their votes to support immunity.
The June 20 bill amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). The bill sets new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits resulting from the government’s warrantless eavesdropping on phone calls and viewing of emails of private citizens in the U.S. Approximately 40 lawsuits have been filed with potential damages totaling in the billions of dollars.
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