You might've heard about the GOP's late-night FISA shenanigans last night in which they compelled Dems to hold a "secret session" to discuss secret info that couldn't be discussed in open debate. And this was after a 90-minute debate over whether to hold such a session. Dana Milbank at The Washington Post called it "the pinnacle of a day of pointlessness on both sides of the Capitol."

Surprisingly, nothing productive or useful came out of this "secret session," which reportedly concluded around 11:30 p.m. last night. This afternoon, the House bill passed 221 to 188. This bill excludes immunity for the telephone companies that hoovered up its customers' call data and handed it over to the NSA. (While this is a vastly better bill than the Senate's disastrous FISA Amendments Act, it still includes provisions that allow bulk collection, and we can't get behind that.)

Up next: the bill will be worked on by Senate staff while the bosses return to their districts for spring break (woo-hoo!) and when the Senators return the first week of April, they might work on a compromise. We think it's unlikely they'll just take up the House bill - they might negotiate some provisions, and no doubt make it much worse for Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.

So we're still far from the home stretch. Stay tuned!

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