U.S. News: Senate Extends Surveillance Measure

"WASHINGTON -- The Senate passed legislation over the weekend renewing a controversial foreign spying power, prevailing over objections from privacy advocates who warned the measure could lead to a dramatic expansion of government surveillance on Americans.

In a 60-34 vote, senators early Saturday approved a bill to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for two years just as it was due to expire, after several amendments failed. The legislation passed the House earlier this month and was signed on Saturday by President Biden, whose administration views the law as vital to protecting national security.

The bill's passage -- by reaching the required 60-vote threshold without a vote to spare -- overcame a furious last-minute lobbying effort by both progressive and conservative senators to derail it, partially on grounds that an amendment adopted by the House was vaguely written and likely to grant U.S. intelligence agencies the authority to compel ordinary Americans to aid in government surveillance.

The Biden administration and the measure's authors rejected those claims as meritless fearmongering, and said it contained dozens of changes that would enhance privacy protections for Americans.

The result, ultimately, was a sort of legislative Rorschach test, where the bill's supporters said it contained the most significant reforms to FISA since the law's creation in 1978 and its detractors said it legalized one of the largest expansions of American spying power on record.

Section 702 is widely viewed as among the most critical surveillance powers at the U.S. government's disposal, even by its critics, and is credited with generating prodigious intelligence used to thwart terror plots, disrupt drug trafficking, fend off hackers and track spies. It allows the National Security Agency to vacuum up reams of electronic communications from U.S. technology providers such as Meta and AT&T and share intercepted conversations with other agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The law authorizes collection of data belonging to foreigners overseas. But privacy-minded lawmakers for years have viewed it skeptically for how it also scoops up an unknown amount of Americans' communications without a warrant, such as when they text or call a foreign suspect under surveillance. Past disclosures, for example, have shown the tool being improperly used to surveil George Floyd demonstrators, participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, and 19,000 donors to a political campaign.

Sen. Mark Warner, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, rallied support for the law before its expiration.

"It is indispensable to the work of the men and women of our intelligence community," Warner said during a Senate floor speech.

An amendment to require a warrant to search the 702 database using U.S. identifiers, like an email address or telephone number, to hunt through intercepted conversations failed in the House this month on the thinnest of margins in a 212-212 vote. A more narrow warrant amendment offered by Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) failed 42-50 Friday.

The Senate had been expected to easily pass the overall bill, but a new roadblock emerged when privacy groups began loudly objecting to a provision expanding the definition of "electronic communications service providers."

In essence, the new statute broadens what qualifies as a service provider to extend beyond traditional large technology and telecommunications firms that have been subject to Section 702 in the past. The intent of the edit was to allow the government to acquire information from data centers that facilitate cloud computing and are often maintained by third-party firms that rent out server space to other companies, according to people familiar with the matter." [1]

1. U.S. News: Senate Extends Surveillance Measure. Volz, Dustin.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 22 Apr 2024: A.6.