Senate passes surveillance bill despite controversy over privacy concerns

Washington
CNN
—

The Senate voted late Friday to reauthorize key oversight authorities, averting the controversial plan from expiring.

Lawmakers voted 60-34 to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, after the House passed the bill late last week.

The House passed the bill after a new proposal was introduced that would change the reauthorization period to two years instead of five. This change helped appease conservatives who initially objected to the bill. The two-year reauthorization would give former President Donald Trump the opportunity to overhaul the law if he wins the next presidential election.

Congress was facing Friday’s deadline after Section 702 powers were extended to that date as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Questions remained early in the day whether Congress would avoid the expiration, as senators struggled to reach an agreement to update critical intelligence agency surveillance tools.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had told lawmakers to prepare for a weekend of work, but by Friday night he had finalized a negotiated agreement for a vote. “We hung in there all day, hoping to reach a breakthrough, and I’m glad we did,” the New York Democrat said, referring to stalled negotiations that threatened the plan.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also urged passage of the FISA bill, saying it contains a number of changes to address past “abuses” by the FBI. The Kentucky Republican also said some critics of the bill have “horrified” the bill, saying it would authorize spying on Americans in coffee shops and other places and should be ignored. “You’re provoking it,” he warned.

Supporters say Section 702 is an important tool to protect national security, but it has come under intense scrutiny from some lawmakers for alleged abuses.

Under Section 702 of FISA, the government monitors large amounts of internet and cell phone data about foreign targets. In the process, information on hundreds of thousands of Americans is incidentally collected and then accessed without a warrant each year, but this is one of the millions of such inquiries conducted by the U.S. government in the past few years. is below. Critics refer to these queries as “backdoor” searches.

The trove of data, which includes much of the United States’ internet traffic, is intended to give U.S. intelligence agencies quick access to data about foreign nationals in other countries.

According to one assessment, this is the basis for much of the information the president sees every morning, helping the United States monitor Russian intentions in Ukraine, identify foreign efforts to access U.S. infrastructure, and monitor foreign efforts to gain access to U.S. infrastructure. It is said to be helping to uncover domestic terrorist networks and thwart domestic terrorist attacks. America.

The complicated politics surrounding this law have long united strange bedfellows. Some conservative Republicans have joined forces with progressive Democrats to push for reform of the agency, while security-minded Democrats and Republicans oppose large new regulations.

On Friday, senators debated an amendment that would require intelligence agencies to obtain a court warrant on charges of espionage. Although the program is currently warrantless and primarily targets foreign nationals rather than Americans, it does expose American citizens to surveillance when they interact with foreign targets. A similar amendment failed in the House of Commons, but by a tie vote.

The other amendment at issue was from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a member of the Intelligence Committee. His amendments, co-sponsored by some of the chamber’s most liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, strike a new part of the plan: “If we have access to equipment, Americans “They help the government spy on them every day.” It is or may be used to transmit or store wired or electronic communications. ”

In a setback for House Republican leadership last week, conservative groups initially pushed back against the bill and rejected a key procedural vote after President Trump called on Republicans to “kill FISA” in a post on Truth Social. did.

Although the move cast doubt on the measure’s fate, leadership ultimately led to final passage of a revised version of the oversight bill.

This heading and article have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Katie Bo Lillis contributed to this report.