House to Shift Focus to FISA 702 Renewal as Deadline Looms

The U.S. Capitol building during cherry blossom season in Washington on March 20, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

The controversial spying powers embedded in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will take center stage on Capitol Hill next week as the House tries for a third time to reauthorize the program.

The House Rules Committee announced on April 5 that upon members’ return from their two-week recess, the panel will begin marking up a bill to reform and renew the tool before its authorization expires on April 19.

The meeting will start at 4 p.m. ET on April 9.

Last authorized in 2018, Section 702 was meant to allow the warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals located outside the United States, though U.S. citizens’ communications have often been swept up in the process. That loophole has allowed for the tool’s rampant abuse in recent years by agents at the FBI, who used it to query the names of Black Lives Matter and Jan. 6 protesters, among other Americans.

The agency claims it has since reformed and that the program is vital to national security. However, critics on both ends of the political spectrum have voiced concerns about the potential for future constitutional violations.

Varying perspectives on how best to reform the program—or whether it’s needed at all—led to competing bills from the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, neither of which garnered enough support to pass the House. The impasse prompted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to temporarily extend the tool’s authorization through the National Defense Authorization Act while negotiations continued.

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The latest proposal, the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, marks a compromise between the prior bills. Changes that the legislation would enact include the requirement of a written statement from the FBI to explain each inquiry of a U.S. citizen and a Justice Department audit of all queries within 180 days of a search. The measure would also mandate notification of Congress for inquiries involving members, make changes to the courts that authorize Section 702’s use, and revoke the FBI’s authority to use the database to probe matters unrelated to national security.

One key reform the legislation lacks is the requirement of a warrant for searches of U.S. citizens—a sticking point for members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to make sure that our government can’t keep spying on its citizens without a warrant,” Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), Freedom Caucus chairman, said on Feb. 13.

“Simply put, anonymous bureaucrats have abused this tool that was intended for supporting surveillance of threats to spy on American citizens, but conservatives are fighting for strict reforms to this law.”

The Freedom Caucus’ objections led Mr. Johnson to delay the bill’s consideration.

Meanwhile, others in the Senate have echoed the same concerns.

“Warrantless surveillance of Americans is un-American. It’s also unconstitutional,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote in a March 29 X post urging opposition to the bill.

Amid reports of an upcoming vote, he reiterated his stance, stating: “No matter how hard the deep state cries, Congress must NOT reauthorize FISA 702 without requiring a warrant to search U.S. citizens.”

The Biden administration, for its part, has expressed support for some of the bill’s reforms. However, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Feb. 14 that a warrant mandate for searches involving U.S. persons was not in the best interest of national security or “the best way actually to ensure the protection of the personal privacy of Americans.”

If passed, the bill would extend Section 702’s authorization for another five years.

Jackson Richman and Joseph Lord contributed to this report.