Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration has given itself carte blanche to eavesdrop on Americans in the name of the war on terror.

Now it's time for Congress to reverse the erosion of civil liberties since Sept. 11.

As Congress moves ahead on rewriting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, lawmakers must set stricter privacy protections and beef up court oversight of the government's terrorist surveillance.

As part of the revamp, lawmakers also should reach a compromise on how to hold telecommunications companies accountable for their role in intelligence gathering.

Major repair work by Congress is needed to restore legal safeguards. Soon after Sept. 11, the Bush administration launched its warrantless spying program to ferret out terror suspects — skirting FISA, the 30-year-old law that governs covert intelligence and sets up procedures for court clearance of wiretapping.

Even worse, Congress this summer hurriedly passed a temporary rewrite of FISA that rolled back its legal protections and expanded presidential authority.

And about 40 privacy lawsuits have been filed against telecom companies that complied with government requests for e-mail and phone records. Bush has vowed to veto any legislation that does not include retroactive legal immunity for them.

Late last week, the House passed the RESTORE Act, its FISA update that strengthens civil liberty protections and excludes immunity for the telecom companies.

The Senate intelligence committee has passed a FISA rewrite that grants telecom immunity. But the Senate Judiciary Committee last week approved a version that sidesteps the amnesty issue, setting up an intense fight in the full Senate on whether or not to grant it.

Lawmakers should seek a compromise on telecom immunity that balances national security and civil liberties. It must be made clear that companies should not hand over Americans' data without proper court warrant approvals. But those that did after Sept. 11 should be given some protection from financial ruin.