 The lapse in the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was a crisis until it wasn’t. This surveillance law authorizes federal intelligence agencies to spy on foreign threats on foreign soil. But it has also been used by the FBI to snoop on the communications of Americans who are suspected of no crime and whose communications were incidentally swept up in the National Security Agency’s global maw. Millions of such searches have been conducted in recent years. Reform-minded Members of Congress, troubled by these mass, unrestrained searches of Americans, sought to add a warrant requirement to Section 702 before the government could read Americans’ communications at will. They were stopped by an unprecedented shutdown of regular order that prevented any debate on even modest reform amendments. As a result, Congress deadlocked and Section 702’s reauthorization expired in late spring. Dire predictions were made about the consequences of Section 702 “going dark.”
Well, the World Cup and Fourth of July celebrations came and went with no terrorist attacks. The eight men who were apprehended around that time for allegedly planning to disrupt the White House UFC event on the White House grounds were caught after warrants were issued following a tip to law enforcement from one suspect’s mother. To be clear, we do not by any means dismiss the ever-present threat of terrorism, especially with Iran now making lurid threats against the president, his family, and the American people. Our point is that it was well known on Capitol Hill that Section 702 had only expired as a governing statute. But the secret FISA Court had already approved “certifications,” or surveillance orders targeting terrorists and foreign threats under Section 702, that will “keep the lights on” through March 2027. So Section 702 never went dark. The intelligence community is still using it as it always has. If a terrorist attack occurs between now and March, it won’t be because the NSA, CIA, and FBI are unable to conduct surveillance. We raise this bit of recent history because it typifies the disingenuous way in which this debate has been conducted. While making unfounded claims in public, defenders of the status quo have twisted the rules in private to stiff-arm any meaningful debate on common-sense reforms. When Congress returns after the August recess, we hope that leadership in the House and Senate will respect regular order and allow for a meaningful debate of the kind that they were unafraid to permit in past Section 702 debates. Members of Congress should be allowed to vote on:
All proposals put forward by reformers contain reasonable exceptions for emergency circumstances. When Congress returns, won’t it be time, after all the turmoil and gamesmanship of the spring, to finally have a candid debate on these reforms, followed by an up-and-down vote? Comments are closed.
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