Congress approves short-term extension of warrantless surveillance powers

Congress has approved a short-term extension of the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers, punting to the new year a decision over how to reform the law.

Included in the defense policy bill headed to the president’s desk after approval by the House on Thursday is a measure that extends Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) until mid-April.

FISA allows the government to spy on foreigners located abroad, but Americans who communicate with those being surveilled have their information swept up in the searches, prompting agreement that reauthorization of the powers must come with reforms that limit documented abuse of the tool by the FBI.

While the National Defense Authorization Act’s inclusion of FISA avoids an end-of-the-year expiration of the powers, it also extends an ongoing battle over whether the government should get a warrant before reviewing information it’s already collected pertaining to Americans.

And several conservative lawmakers voiced frustration over its inclusion in a must-pass bill.

“The fact of the matter is what’s being stated is it is impossible to oppose the National Defense Authorization Act because we put a pay raise in it or because we put something in there that is seemingly so important that we have to ignore the critical destruction of our civil liberties by adding FISA extension right on the top of it without doing the forms necessary to protect the American people,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who has argued a FISA reauthorization should be a stand-alone bill.

“We do this every year,” he added. 

Still, the intelligence community praised the short-term extension as critical to national security.

“We are relieved and grateful that Congress recognizes that allowing Section 702 to lapse even temporarily would be catastrophic to U.S. national security and the safety of the American people. We cannot afford to be blinded to the many threats we face from foreign adversaries, including Iran and China, as well as terrorist organizations like Hamas and ISIS,” Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for the National Security Division, said in a statement. 

“We urge Congress to act swiftly in the new year to reauthorize this critical intelligence tool.”

Privacy rights groups, however, blasted the extension, making clear they will lobby against any reauthorization in 2024 that doesn’t include a warrant for Section 702.

“It’s incredibly disheartening that Congress decided to extend an easily-abused law with zero of the reforms needed to protect all of our privacy. As long as Section 702 is being used by the government to spy on Americans without a warrant, we will continue to fight this unconstitutional law and work with Congress to strengthen our Fourth Amendment protections against government surveillance,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.