Former President Donald Trump implored House Republicans on April 10 to veto a bill that would reauthorize the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers, referring to provisions that were used to surveil his campaign.
April 19 marks the expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which authorizes the surveillance of foreign nationals situated abroad. In light of this, Congress is currently working to devise a reform package to renew the act, but with significant changes.
Section 702, which was last authorized in 2018, was intended to permit warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals located outside the United States. However, in practice, it has frequently been entangled with the communications of U.S. citizens.
The agency asserts that the program is vital to national security and that it has since undergone reform. Nevertheless, critics across the political spectrum have been apprehensive regarding the possibility of further constitutional infringements.
As negotiations persisted, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) extended the tool’s authorization temporarily through the National Defense Authorization Act in response to the impasse.
Mr. Johnson said during a GOP press conference on April 10 that the House would be reauthorizing FISA, but clarified that they would be “enacting sweeping changes” in the form of “over 50 reforms” to be put in place.
The lawmaker highlighted what he sees as the necessity of the program, saying, “ It’s a critically important piece of our intelligence and law enforcement in this country because it allows us to continue killing Hamas terrorists. It allows us to track shipments of the least illicit chemicals used to make fentanyl, it allows us to protect US warships from attacks by Houthi rebels, allows us to stop China from stealing American intellectual property, and it prevents ransomware attacks against American companies.”
However, he also noted that FISA has been abused through “politicized FBI queries” and said the changes coming to the program would “prevent another Russia hoax debacle, among many other important reforms.”
“No more Steele dossiers; no more of the intelligence community relying on fake news reports to order a FISA order; no more collusion; these changes will make sure that that doesn’t happen.”
The House leader asserted that his legislative body has to act: “Congress is stepping in because the FBI is has [sic] frankly failed to adequately police its own agents. The agency is in need of dramatic cultural change.
“It’s critical we address these abuses because we don’t want to lose Section 702 of FISA.”
