Senate Must Reject House’s Blank Check on Spying Authority

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a three-year extension of a government surveillance program that has been abused to spy on journalists, protestors, and even members of Congress. Today’s 235-191 vote follows two failed late-night votes in mid-April, when House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to force through both a five-year and then an eighteen-month extension. The House at that time passed a two-week extension instead, teeing up this latest round of votes.  

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows agencies like the FBI and NSA to conduct warrantless surveillance of almost any non-U.S. citizen located outside of the United States. But the program has also swept up the calls, texts, and other communications of millions of people located inside the United States in the process. 

For years, civil rights and civil liberties advocates in Congress and across the country have advocated for popular, bipartisan reforms including a requirement that the government gets a court order before searching the Section 702 database for information on people in the United States. 

Over the past year, oversight mechanisms dedicated to preventing abuses of Section 702 have been gutted by the Trump administration. Within weeks of his second inauguration, President Trump illegally fired the two Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, leaving that agency without the bipartisan quorum required to fulfil its independent oversight function. Last May, FBI Director Kash Patel closed the bureau’s internal auditing office created to monitor for Section 702 abuses.

The House bill now heads to the Senate, where some of its provisions still face opposition from Senate Republicans. The Senate could pass another short-term extension — or advance bipartisan reform legislation already introduced in both chambers. 

Free Press Action Advocacy Director Jenna Ruddock said:

“The House has once again failed to pass popular, bipartisan reforms to a government-surveillance authority with a long track record of abuse. House GOP leadership has been determined to jam through a virtually clean extension of FISA Section 702 for weeks, with only a fig leaf of meaningless additions despite significant resistance from within their own party — not to mention growing public outrage. 

“As we’ve said time and again, no administration should have these powers. But just look at the champions for a clean extension of Section 702 in the Trump administration in particular. Stephen Miller has advocated against reforms to Section 702, claiming it is critical to his and Trump’s homeland security agenda, even as members of the administration refer to political opponents as ‘enemies within.’ 

“Today, 42 Democrats joined 192 Republicans to co-sign Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s domestic surveillance agenda, jeopardizing the civil rights and liberties of every person in the United States. 

“There is bipartisan legislation already introduced in both the House and Senate that would make desperately needed reforms to government surveillance powers. The Senate should reject the fake reforms in the current House bill and demand a vote on real reforms to Section 702, including a warrant requirement, and closing the data-broker loophole. Our constitutional rights depend on it.”

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