For the third time since December, House Speaker Mike Johnson failed to win support for reauthorizing a key U.S. surveillance program, raising questions about a law that would force certain companies to eavesdrop on foreigners on behalf of the government. future doubts.
On Tuesday, Johnson lost 19 Republicans in a procedural vote that traditionally ran along party lines. Republicans control the House but only by a slim margin. The failed vote came just hours after former US President Donald Trump ordered Republicans to “kill FISA” in a 2 a.m. post on Truth Social, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that authorizes the program.
The Section 702 surveillance program, which targets foreigners overseas while also scanning large troves of U.S. communications, is set to end next week on April 19. The scheme was extended by four months in late December after Johnson’s first attempt to control the situation failed. vote.
Congressional sources told Wired they don’t know what the next steps will be.
Regardless of whether Johnson gets another vote next week, the plan itself will run into next year. Congress does not directly authorize surveillance. Instead, it allows U.S. intelligence services to seek “certification” from secret surveillance courts every year.
The Justice Department applied for new certification in February. Last week, it announced they had received court approval. However, questions remain about the government’s authority to issue new directives under the plan without congressional approval.
These certifications are required only for “incidental” collection of U.S. phone calls and generally allow the program to be used in cases involving terrorism, cybercrime and weapons proliferation. U.S. intelligence officials have also touted the program as critical to combating the large influx of fentanyl-related substances into the United States from overseas.
The program remains controversial as a series of abuses were largely committed by the FBI, which maintains a database of some of the raw data collected under Section 702.
Although the government says it only “targets” foreigners, it admits it collects vast amounts of U.S. communications in the process. (It said the actual number was impossible to calculate.) Still, it asserted that it was constitutional for federal agents to review the wiretaps without a search warrant once the communications were in the government’s possession.
Progressive and conservative lawmakers formed an unlikely alliance last year to push for an end to these warrantless searches, with many Republicans outspoken about the FBI’s misuse of FISA to target Trump campaign staff in 2016. criticism. (The 702 Program, just one part of FISA, was not involved in this particular controversy.)
Privacy experts have criticized proposed changes to the Section 702 program championed by members of the House Intelligence Committee and Johnson, who previously voted in favor of the search warrant requirement but now opposes it.
“Congressional leadership seems to need to be reminded that these privacy protections are extremely popular,” said Sean Vitka, policy director at Demand Progress, a nonprofit focused on civil liberties. “Surveillance reformers remain willing and able to do so.”
An amendment proposed by the Intel panel could significantly increase the number of U.S. companies forced to cooperate with the program, a team of lawyers representing one of the few making arguments before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in a statement on Tuesday.
Declassified documents released by the FISA Court last year revealed that the FBI abused the 702 program more than 278,000 times, including Washington post“, targeting “crime victims, suspects in the January 6 riots, people arrested at protests in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, and in one case, donations to a congressional candidate 19,000 donors. “
James Czerniawaski, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity, a Washington, D.C., think tank that has pushed for changes to Section 702, said that despite recognizing its value, it remains a “problematic Plan,” which requires “significant and meaningful reform.”
“Today’s outcome was entirely avoidable,” he said, “but it requires the intelligence community and its allies to recognize that the days of irresponsible and unconditional espionage against Americans are over.”