House Republicans Recommend Changes to FBI’s Warrantless Spy Powers

The U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington on March 28, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

House Republicans have released a set of suggested alterations to the way in which the government conducts domestic surveillance, potentially changing a tool that has been used to conduct warrantless searches on Americans.

The Majority FISA Working Group of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released their 73-page report on Nov. 16, outlining 45 changes they suggest be implemented to curb potential abuse of the act by the FBI and other agencies.

Thanks to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), authorities in the United States are authorized to conduct warrantless surveillance on foreign persons outside the country.

Section 702 was added to FISA in 2008 and has been protected on the grounds that it is an essential aspect of U.S. defense after the Sept. 11 attacks.

House Republicans have been vocal in their disapproval of the FBI’s “widespread violations” of the law, including its warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens, and a panel led by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) has proposed significant changes to FISA’s so-called Section 702 authority, which will expire at the end of this year.

“Our report outlines reforms necessary for FISA’s reauthorization. The United States is currently at its greatest risk of a terrorist attack in nearly a decade. We cannot afford to let this critical national security tool expire,” Mr. Turner said, according to the committee’s press release on the report.

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“I look forward to working with my colleagues on this critical issue before the end of the year.”

Preventing Abuse

Among the proposed changes are 19 provisions to prevent FBI querying abuses, including restricting the number of personnel who can authorize U.S. person queries, requiring a warrant for such queries, creating criminal liability for leaks, and mandating independent audits.

Fourteen provisions aim to prevent abuses similar to the Carter Page case, introducing enhanced criminal penalties, allowing the FISA Court to prosecute for contempt, and prohibiting the use of political opposition research for FISA orders.

Seven provisions in the report are designed to fix and open up the FISA Court, including allowing Members of Congress to attend court hearings, transcribing and making hearings available to Congress, and assigning a court-appointed counsel to scrutinize U.S. person surveillance applications.

The report also addresses broader concerns, such as enhancing the National Security Agency’s ability to target international fentanyl trafficking operations, tracking Mexican drug cartels’ burner phones, and allowing comprehensive vetting of all foreigners applying for visas, immigration, or asylum using Section 702 queries.

Mr. Turner emphasizes the critical need for FISA reform given the current elevated threat level, expressing his determination to collaborate with colleagues on this crucial national security issue.

The report concludes with a call for comprehensive reforms to ensure the effectiveness of FISA in safeguarding American lives and liberty.

“It is hard to find an adjective that adequately describes a tool that has done as much to safeguard American lives and liberty as it has,” the report said.

“We are unable to calculate just how many lives it has saved. It is worth noting that there has not been another 9/11 since Section 702’s inception, despite the persistent threat of terrorism.”

Blocked From Searching

A bill was introduced on Nov. 7 that would curb the power of domestic intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless searches on Americans.

The legislation called the Government Surveillance Reform Act, would forbid the agencies from searching a database for information on Americans in most cases.

The database the agencies are blocked from is where the information collected under Section 702 is kept.

This legislation was introduced after it was discovered that FBI employees repeatedly failed to follow the guidelines for using the database and were inappropriately searching for a U.S. senator and Jan. 6, 2021, protesters, as the courts and watchdogs have found.

The bill would make it illegal to request information from the database about U.S. citizens or residents, with a few exceptions: when the subject has a criminal warrant, when law enforcement has an order or emergency authorization to query the subject; and when the person requesting the information reasonably believes “an emergency exists involving an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm” and that a query is necessary before authorization can be granted.

“Our Founding Fathers made it clear that if government agencies want to read an American’s private communications, they should get a warrant,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), co-sponsor of the new bill, told reporters in a briefing.

“But today, American intelligence agencies hoover up large volumes of electronic communications, and they claim they have a right to search individual Americans’ texts and emails without getting a warrant. They don’t have that right. And it’s time for the law to reflect that.”

The prohibition applies to material that would require a probable cause warrant if law enforcement wanted it. The ban does not include requests for information about communication metadata.

The Republicans admitted in their Nov. 16 report on the proposed changes that, “Section 702 of FISA is one of the most effective tools used by the Intelligence Community to protect our nation,” and “If it sunsets, so too will our ability to identify, prevent, and mitigate threats to our democracy.

“We will go ‘blind to many critical national security risks that threaten our homeland and our military interests abroad.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.