Civic Register
| 1.11.18

Surveillance Reauthorization Passes House, Faces Senate Filibuster Threat

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In its final vote of the week, the House passed a six-year reauthorization of the government’s surveillance authorities under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Thursday on a bipartisan 256-164 vote, sending it to the Senate where it faces an uncertain fate.

Section 702 allows intelligence agencies to collect the communications of foreign nationals overseas for national security purposes. Supporters of the authority say it’s a critical tool in the government’s effort to keep the homeland safe from terrorism, pointing to its use in thwarting a 2009 plot to bomb the New York City subway system and in removing a senior ISIS leader from the battlefield. Critics have expressed concern that it lacks safeguards for protecting the personal information of U.S. citizens whose communications are incidentally collected, as a warrant currently isn’t required unless the sole purpose of the surveillance is collecting an American’s communications.

While the House passed the bill comfortably with bipartisan backing, bipartisan lawmakers concerned that it lacked sufficient protections for Americans’ civil liberties made an unsuccessful attempt to modify it. Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) offered the text of the USA RIGHTS Act — a shorter, four-year reauthorization that would require a warrant before querying the 702 database for Americans’ information — as an amendment that was rejected 189-227.

The authors of the USA RIGHTS Act, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY), have indicated they’ll oppose the House-passed bill with a filibuster in the Senate:

It’s unclear though whether Paul, Wyden, and other senators opposing the measure will be able to sustain the filibuster. The chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee — Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA) — have expressed support for the bill and their committee advanced an eight-year reauthorization of Section 702 surveillance that had similar privacy protections as the House-passed bill on a 12-3 vote.

There’s also uncertainty over whether the Senate will consider the reauthorization as a standalone bill, or attach it to a continuing resolution to keep the government funded beyond January 19 — which is also the date through which Section 702 surveillance is currently authorized. If the Senate opts to attach it to a government funding measure, the House will have vote on the reauthorization a second time. We’ll keep you posted on this as more information becomes available.

Tell your reps what reforms, if any, you want to see to the government’s surveillance activities under FISA Section 702 using the Take Action button and share your thoughts below!

— Eric Revell

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