President Biden signed a bill Saturday that extends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrantless surveillance program for another two years.
The Senate approved the reauthorization bill Saturday morning after hours of intense debate, narrowly preventing an important national intelligence collection capability from being erased.
Senators voted 60-34 to send the bill to Biden’s desk shortly after the midnight deadline. The program appeared to be headed for a slip until Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) announced a breakthrough on the Senate floor.
The legislation expands the government’s ability to spy on foreigners located abroad, a process that also sweeps the communications of Americans with whom it has contact.
The bill, called the America Intelligence and Security Reform Act, enacts numerous reforms to Section 702 of FISA, although it falls short of privacy hawks’ expectations.
After the vote, the White House issued a statement applauding Congress for approving what it called “one of America’s most vital intelligence-gathering tools.”
“The America Intelligence and Security Reform Act will maintain essential authority to understand and protect against a broad range of dangerous threats to Americans while enhancing safeguards for privacy and civil liberties through the most robust set of reforms already included in legislation to reauthorize Section 702,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in the statement after the vote.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Friday that the bill is not a “clean reauthorization” of the program, but a reform bill that would fix “many of the problems we have experienced with Section 702.”
Still, the debate over the legislation revealed the deep divisions within both parties over a 15-year-old program that proponents consider vital to national security and that critics argue is a serious violation of Americans’ right to privacy.
The extension was approved by the House after a group of 19 members of the Republican Party failed in a procedural vote to advance the debate – a measure that did not mark any of their political demands.
Alexander Bolton contributed reporting.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
