President Biden this weekend signed into law a bill reauthorizing a controversial spy program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Section 702 of FISA, which has now been extended for two more years, allows warrantless intelligence gathering on foreign targets. While it focuses on communications from targets located outside the U.S., that includes any exchanges with people in the United States, meaning Americans' records may also be included in these collections.
The Senate vote on reauthorizing Section 702 went down to the wire. It was scheduled to expire at midnight Friday, but was recently granted an extension until April 2025, according to The New York Times, so that it does not expire while disagreements over the proposed amendments drag on. The Section 702 extension period was also shortened, reducing it to two years instead of the previous five. Congress ultimately missed the deadline on Friday, but passed it by a vote of 60 to 34. CBS News reported. The White House issued a statement shortly after saying the president “will quickly pilot the bill.”
Section 702 was first enacted in 2008 and has already been renewed twice, allowing US intelligence agencies to use data from internet and cell phone providers without a court order to monitor the communications of foreign targets. It has faced strong opposition from both sides over its implications for Americans' privacy. Kia Hamadanchy, senior political advisor for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the bill's passage “deeply disappointing” in a statement released over the weekend, and went on to say that it “gives the government more ways to to watch us secretly.” – with little power to hold spy agencies accountable.”
“Senators were aware of the threat this surveillance bill posed to our civil liberties and pushed it through anyway, promising that they would try to address some of the most egregious expansions in the near future,” Hamadanchy said. “We plan to ensure these promises are kept.”
Update, April 21, 2024, 1:21 pm ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from the ACLU.
