Congress Reauthorizes FISA Section 702 for Two Years
The Senate passed the House version of the bill after six amendment votes failed.
The U.S. Congress has today reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for two years. The program was set to expire Friday at midnight. The legislative now heads to President Joe Biden for his signature. The final package offered slight reforms of the program that represented a compromise between Democrats and Republicans.
Section 702 gives intelligence agencies the authority to collect data of foreign officials living abroad whose information is stored in American-based companies. The information gathered allows the federal government to act in real time in addressing national security threats. In the course of these operations, the data of Americans in contact with foreigners under surveillance was also gathered. That produced the biggest debate in crafting the reforms for the program.
The Biden administration previously laid out new policies to ensure the information of American citizens was protected. New guidelines dictated who in the intelligence community was authorized to view the material but only with a specific investigative purpose. Plus, more oversight was added to create after-the-fact audits to determine if the surveillance was actually necessary. However, several lawmakers from both parties insisted on adding a warrant requirement to ensure the privacy of American citizens was protected regardless. That change was not ultimately included with the final package.
The most consecutive Republicans and the most progressive Democrats were united in their attempts to strengthen privacy protections in this legislation. The warrant requirement wasn’t included in the legislative text of the bill. A vote occurred in the House to offer it as an amendment. However, that failed with a 212-212 tie. Final passage still occurred with a 259-128 in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday evening. A similar amendment also failed in the U.S. Senate with a 42-50 vote. Final passage in the upper chamber happened with a 60-34 vote today.
The Section 702 authority was originally set to expire at the end of last year. The deadline was extended to mid-April as lawmakers were negotiating a bipartisan compromise. The reauthorization was originally envisioned as being for five years. Cutting it back to two years allowed more Republicans to support the final measure. The text of the bill that will soon become law also legalizes some of the charges the Biden administration already put into practice throughout the intelligence community.