#section 702

"Section 702 is rife with problems, loopholes, and compliance issues that need fixing," warns Matthew Guariglia of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in a recent call for changes in Section 702 or its elimination. "The National Security Agency collects full conversations being conducted by and with targets overseas—including by and with Americans in the U.S.—and stores them in massive databases. The NSA then allows other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to access untold amounts of that information."

Guariglia adds that the FBI, which supposedly focuses primarily on domestic matters and not overseas intelligence, "can query and even read" the U.S. side of international communication without a warrant and without informing targets that federal agents are pawing through their messages.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.), who has opposed domestic surveillance activities for many years, often alongside Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.), says the situation is even worse than is widely understood. Last month he cautioned that "there's another example of secret law related to Section 702, one that directly affects the privacy rights of Americans. For years, I have asked various administrations to declassify this matter. Thus far they have all refused….When it is eventually declassified, the American people will be stunned that it took so long and that Congress has been debating this authority with insufficient information."

The Cato Institute's Patrick G. Eddington takes such warnings to heart. Earlier this month, he summarized the debate over Section 702 thusly:

The House and Senate on Friday approved a short-term extensive of a section of federal law that allows the warrantless surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence, though a renewal beyond the end of this month remains in jeopardy.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was set to expire on Monday and allows the government to collect the communications of people outside the U.S., including when they are interacting with Americans. Friday’s votes extend the program to April 30.

The short-term extension advanced out of the House only after GOP hard-liners spiked separate five-year and 18-moth proposals to extend the program in the early hours of Friday morning.

Why is Section 702 controversial?

Supporters argue the warrantless surveillance program is an invaluable tool in protecting U.S. interests and thwarting potential threats. The CIA said this month that the program helped to thwart a planned terrorist attack at a 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Austria.

Read more CNBC politics coverage

Three things to know about FISA Section 702: Congress passes short-term extension of controversial surveillance program

House Dem Sam Liccardo probes suspicious oil trades during Iran war

Tanker diplomacy: Trump faces tests from Havana to Hormuz

Kalshi, Polymarket lobby as insider trading, betting eyed by Congress

But an extension without changes to the program is widely opposed by many GOP hard-liners and by some Democrats, like Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who briefly held up the short-term extension on Friday but relented in the hopes of striking a deal to more substantially change the surveillance program.

“Americans understand that every single day there are abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” Wyden said from the Senate floor on Friday, calling a straight extension unacceptable. “So it is clear it’s time for real reforms to protect Americans from a government that they rightly do not trust.”

What does the White House say?

President Donald Trump has called for a clean, 18-month extension of the program, posting his support on Truth Social on Wednesday and citing the need for robust defenses particularly amid the ongoing war in Iran.

“The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our Military. I have spoken to many Generals about this, and they consider it vital. Not one said, even tacitly, that they can do without it — especially right now with our brilliant Military Operation in Iran,” Trump said.

What’s next?

The House and Senate both left town on Friday after advancing the short-term extension. Leaders in both chambers will have to resume negotiations when they return to Washington next week. And they’ll have to contend with members on both sides of the aisle who are calling for greater protections of U.S. citizens’ privacy.

Reps. Jim Himes, D-Conn., Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the top Democrats on the House Intelligence, Judiciary and Rules committees, respectively, issued a joint statement on Friday slamming their Republican colleagues for trying to jam through a five-year extension in the middle of the night.

“In agreeing to a two-week extension of this authority, Democrats have made clear that this will need to be a true bipartisan process, and they must work with us in good faith to reach an agreement that puts in place significant reforms and safeguards,” the lawmakers wrote. “And because all members and the public deserve a meaningful role in this process consistent with House rules, we have insisted and Republicans have agreed to post the results of our negotiations at least 72 hours prior to any vote.”

Correction: This story has been revised to reflect that Congress extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. A previous version misstated the year of the act.

CONTACT YOUR REPS!!!

Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121 (say who you want to call)

In what could be one of the most pivotal moments in her political career, former Representative Tulsi Gabbard faces a critical Senate Intelligence Committee hearing today, where her nomination for Director of National Intelligence (DNI) hangs in the balance. This hearing is not just about confirming a new leader for America’s intelligence community but is a litmus test for Gabbard’s political…

An agency that has abused this exact authority with 3.4 million warrantless searches of Americans’ communications in 2021 alone, thinks that the answer to its misuse of mass surveillance is to do more of it, not less.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/after-expanding-warrantless-surveillance-the-fbi-is-playing-politics-with-your-privacy

The NSA is just DAYS from taking over the internet, and it’s not on the front page of any newspaper–because no one has noticed.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/congress-is-about-to-pass-a-massive-expansion-to-illegal-surveillance-and-most-havent-noticed

Nick Robins-Early at The Guardian:

House lawmakers voted on Friday to reauthorize section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or Fisa, including a key measure that allows for warrantless surveillance of Americans. The controversial law allows for far-reaching monitoring of foreign communications, but has also led to the collection of US citizens’ messages and phone calls. Lawmakers voted 273–147 to approve the law, which the Biden administration has for years backed as an important counterterrorism tool. An amendment that would have required authorities seek a warrant failed, in a tied 212-212 vote across party lines. Donald Trump opposed the reauthorization of the bill, posting to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday: “KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!”

The law, which gives the government expansive powers to view emails, calls and texts, has long been divisive and resulted in allegations from civil liberties groups that it violates privacy rights. House Republicans were split in the lead-up to vote over whether to reauthorize section 702, the most contentious aspect of the bill, with Mike Johnson, the House speaker, struggling to unify them around a revised version of the pre-existing law. Republicans shot down a procedural vote on Wednesday that would have allowed Johnson to put the bill to a floor vote, in a further blow to the speaker’s ability to find compromise within his party. Following the defeat, the bill was changed from a five-year extension to a two-year extension of section 702 – an effort to appease far-right Republicans who believe Trump will be president by the time it expires. Section 702 allows for government agencies such as the National Security Administration to collect data and monitor the communications of foreign citizens outside of US territory without the need for a warrant, with authorities touting it as a key tool in targeting cybercrime, international drug trafficking and terrorist plots. Since the collection of foreign data can also gather communications between people abroad and those in the US, however, the result of section 702 is that federal law enforcement can also monitor American citizens’ communications.

Section 702 has faced opposition before, but it became especially fraught in the past year after court documents revealed that the FBI had improperly used it almost 300,000 times – targeting racial justice protesters, January 6 suspects and others. That overreach emboldened resistance to the law, especially among far-right Republicans who view intelligence services like the FBI as their opponent. Trump’s all-caps post further weakened Johnson’s position. Trump’s online remarks appeared to refer to an FBI investigation into a former campaign adviser of his, which was unrelated to section 702. Other far-right Republicans such as Matt Gaetz similarly vowed to derail the legislation, putting its passage in peril. Meanwhile, the Ohio congressman Mike Turner, Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told lawmakers on Friday that failing to reauthorize the bill would be a gift to China’s government spying programs, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah.

[...] Debate over Section 702 pitted Republicans who alleged that the law was a tool for spying on American citizens against others in the GOP who sided with intelligence officials and deemed it a necessary measure to stop foreign terrorist groups. One proposed amendment called for requiring authorities to secure a warrant before using section 702 to view US citizens’ communications, an idea that intelligence officials oppose as limiting their ability to act quickly. Another sticking point in the debate was whether law enforcement should be prohibited from buying information on American citizens from data broker firms, which amass and sell personal data on tens of millions of people, including phone numbers and email addresses. Section 702 dates back to the George W Bush administration, which secretly ran warrantless wiretapping and surveillance programs in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks. In 2008, Congress passed section 702 as part of the Fisa Amendments Act and put foreign surveillance under more formal government oversight. Lawmakers have renewed the law twice since, including in 2018 when they rejected an amendment that would have required authorities to get warrants for US citizens’ data.

The House voted 273–147 (with 147 Dems voting yes and 59 Dems voting no and 126 Republicans voted yes and 88 Repubs voted no) to pass a 2-year extension on FISA, but failed 212-212 to pass the Biggs-Jayapal amendment in which 84 Dems voted yes and 126 Dems voted no and 128 Republicans voted yes and 86 Repubs voted no.

Final House Vote:

Biggs-Jayapal Amendment: