Original Article GOP support grows for domestic-spying law Katherine Shrader Associated Press Mar. 8, 2006 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - Support was building Tuesday for a proposal from some moderate Senate Republicans that would give President Bush's surveillance program the force of law, more than four years after he secretly initiated the program. The Republican efforts came as the Senate Intelligence Committee voted against opening a full-blown investigation into the U.S.-based monitoring operations. The prospects for the draft legislation circulated Tuesday are far from certain. But Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and three other moderate Republicans who have helped shaped the debate on intelligence issues - Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina - are introducing legislation that has the general approval of the White House and the Senate's GOP and intelligence leadership. Meanwhile, Democrats on the Intelligence Committee expressed outrage after a meeting Tuesday that senators voted along party lines to reject an investigation of the surveillance proposed by West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the panel's top Democrat. "The committee - to put it bluntly - basically is in the control of the White House," Rockefeller said. Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., balked at Rockefeller's suggestion. Earlier, Roberts said he asked the committee to accommodate an agreement with the White House to create a subcommittee of seven senators with broad oversight of the National Security Agency's terrorist monitoring. "We should fight the enemy. We should not fight each other," Roberts said. The 15-member panel agreed, over strong Democratic objections that the limited size of the group means Congress will be writing laws in the dark. "Our committee has to be fully informed if we are to guide the legislative debate on this program that is fast approaching," Rockefeller said. The call for legislation has added pressure on the administration to go along, and the White House indicated a broad approval for DeWine's bill. "We think it is a generally sound measure," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he'd write a bill to limit money for the program if he can't get more details. "If we cannot find some political solution to the disagreement with the executive branch, our ultimate power is the power of the purse," he said.