Congress and the President Make a Deal on NSA Surveillance

According to the NYT, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter and the White House has reached a deal on a bill to subject President Bush’s controversial NSA wiretapping program to limited judicial review. It’s a little hard to figure out exactly what they’ve agreed to, but according to Sen. Specter, the bill will subject the program to a one-time review by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Assuming it passes this judicial scrutiny, the program would then be allowed to continue.

Why does Congress need the FISA court to review the legality of the NSA program, at least with respect to its conformity with other congressional statutes? The only explanation that makes sense to me is that the White House and NSA have been refusing to actually reveal details of the program to Congress. Congress therefore believes it can’t evaluate the legality of the program without all the facts. Presumably, the White House will reveal these details to the FISA court, which will act as Congress’ agent here in determining its legality.

This seems like sensible plan, from a practical standpoint anyway. I’m not aware, however, of other congressional statutes providing for one-time judicial review of executive branch programs. So this also seems rather unusual.