WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday advanced legislation that would reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance tool, as lawmakers and the Biden administration rushed to address new concerns about the program violating Americans’ civil liberties.
The bipartisan legislation would reform and expand a portion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as Section 702. U.S. officials say this is critical to preventing terrorism, capturing spies and disrupting cyber attacks. A bill to revamp the program was passed by the House of Representatives last week after a dramatic showdown over whether the FBI should be allowed to use the program to search for U.S. data.
But the same concerns that nearly derailed the bill in the House of Representatives are flaring up again in the Senate, with both progressives and conservative lawmakers calling for further changes. It’s a dynamic that could ultimately jeopardize the bill’s passage in the Senate, though supporters remain optimistic the program will be reauthorized without much agreement.
The Biden administration has spent the week on Capitol Hill providing classified briefings to senators on the crucial role they say the spy program plays in protecting national security. Officials warn that some of the proposed changes to the tool could hamper the FBI’s efforts to thwart threats against the US
Opponents remain unmoved and have demanded that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer allow votes on amendments to the legislation that would attempt to address what they see as civil liberties loopholes .
“The administration claims that if changes occur it will jeopardize the program,” Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont said Thursday. “That asks a lot of the Senate to basically abdicate its responsibility.”
The legislation in its current form has the support not only of the Biden administration, but also of national security committee leaders in Congress, who have urged opponents to accept the program’s mild reforms. Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the changes proposed by the various groups are “unnecessary” and would “defeat the purpose of the program.”
“If certain amendments like this were to pass, the bill would go back to the House and I just don’t know what attitude the House will be in to be able to pass legislation because there is so much going on. ,” Rubio said.
Although the spy program technically expires Friday, the Biden administration has said it expects its intelligence-gathering authority to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to an opinion earlier this month from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which receives surveillance requests. .
Still, officials say court approval should not be a substitute for congressional approval, especially because communications companies could stop working with the government if the program were to expire.
Overall skepticism about the government’s spying powers has increased dramatically in recent years, especially on the right. Republicans have clashed for months over what a legislative overhaul of the FISA surveillance program should look like, creating divisions that spilled over into the House of Representatives last week when 19 Republicans broke with their party to prevent the bill from being debated would be voted on.
Ultimately, House Speaker Mike Johnson managed to appease some critics of the reauthorization bill by shortening the program’s extension from five to two years.
The spy tool was first approved in 2008 and has been renewed several times since, as U.S. officials see it as crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage. It has also provided intelligence that the US has relied on for specific operations.
But the administration’s efforts to secure the program’s reauthorization have repeatedly been met with fierce and bipartisan opposition, with Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden having long advocated for civil liberties and joining Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump , who falsely stated in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday that Section 702 had been used to spy on his presidential campaign.
Of particular concern to lawmakers is the FBI’s use of its vast intelligence repository to seek information about Americans and others in the US. Although the surveillance program only targets non-Americans in other countries, it also collects communications from Americans when they are in the US. contact with the intended foreigners.
Over the past year, US officials have exposed a series of abuses and errors by FBI analysts in improperly searching the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the US, including a member of Congress and participants in the protests against racial justice of 2020 and the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
___
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
