Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- A Senate panel approved legislation on a party-line vote authorizing President George W. Bush's domestic eavesdropping program with court review.

The measure, approved by a 10-8 vote in the Republican- controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, now goes to the full Senate, where Republican leaders plan to hold a vote before lawmakers leave next month to campaign for the November elections.

The measure would authorize a secret court to rule on the legality of the National Security Agency's program to listen to the international calls between al-Qaeda operatives overseas and their suspected confederates in the U.S. without court warrants.

``There has been no one who has asked for the National Security Agency to stop the surveillance of the international terrorists,'' said Texas Senator John Cornyn, one of 10 Republicans who supported the legislation.

Bush agreed to the measure's wording in negotiations with Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the panel. By a series of 10-8 votes, the Republican-controlled committee defeated efforts by Democrats to change it.

The panel did approve a competing proposal, backed by Democrats, that would streamline existing law to allow the eavesdropping with warrants. Specter, who voted to send the Democratic proposal to the Senate, predicted that the Republican- backed version he negotiated with the president would win final approval.

Separately, the House Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on a measure sponsored by Representative Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican, that would be in conflict with the Senate legislation.

Secret Court

Specter's legislation wouldn't require Bush to submit the NSA program to a secret court for review. Still, the president agreed to do so if Congress passes the measure in the form approved today in the committee. The president wouldn't have to stop the eavesdropping program even if the court objects.

The measure would also provide for appeals of the secret court's ruling to the Supreme Court.

Democrats such as Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold voted against the measure, arguing it would legalize Bush's flouting of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the president to seek court approved warrants to wiretap suspected spies and terrorists.

``We are confronted by a president who is breaking the law,'' Feingold said. ``What we would be doing by this legislation is institutionalizing and legislating the putting into law of the land the president walking all over us,'' he said.

Democrats also complained that Bush has refused to give lawmakers sufficient information about the program. Bush's refusal forces Congress to legislate ``almost in complete darkness'' on the issue, Feingold said.

Inherent Authority

The Bush administration contends that the Constitution gives the president inherent authority as commander of the armed forces to conduct the eavesdropping program without judicial review.

Bush's surveillance program, ordered after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is merely an exercise of military power to ``conduct intelligence activities and surveillance that has existed in the country since George Washington,'' Cornyn said.

Specter called his legislation an effort ``to find a way to have judicial review'' of the program.

He and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham joined the panel's eight Democrats in voting to send to the Senate the competing measure that would require the president to seek individual warrants for the surveillance.

Emergency Wiretaps

The measure, sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein, would allow the president to conduct emergency wiretaps without warrants for up to seven days before seeking court permission. Current law allows the attorney general to order emergency wiretapping for up to three days.

Feinstein, who has been briefed on the NSA program as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, argued that the eavesdropping could be conducted within the legal structure Congress set up in 1978 to authorize wiretapping to gather information on enemy agents and spies.

Her measure would streamline the procedures by giving the attorney general authority to empower intelligence officials to initiate emergency wiretapping without warrants. Current law requires the attorney general or his designate to order such eavesdropping.

Preserve

It would also preserve a clause of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act stating that that law is the exclusive authority for such wiretapping.

Congress enacted the law to correct abuses of wiretapping in the 1960s and 1970s uncovered by congressional investigations that found the Federal Bureau of Investigation spied on activists protesting the Vietnam War and other political dissidents who posed no threat to security.

Feinstein said her measure was designed to protect the privacy of Americans' phone calls and e-mails. ``We don't want to see Americans rights abused for the next 50 to 60 years,'' Feinstein said.

The language Specter negotiated with Bush would repeal that provision and legalize any warrantless wiretapping ordered by a president since Congress enacted the surveillance law 28 years ago.

The committee also approved a measure sponsored by Ohio Republican Mike DeWine that would require the president to explain to Congress why he was continuing to wiretap suspected terrorists without warrants.

DeWine described his measure as ``complementary, not contradictory'' to the language Bush negotiated with Specter. Under the measure, the president would be allowed to conduct the surveillance before obtaining evidence sufficient to get warrants.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 13, 2006 14:13 EDT