Rep. Jim Jordan: No Way for Privacy in Section 702 Until Congress Can Get It Fixed, or If Congress Can GET IT DON’T

The Section 702 program, which is used to target foreigners overseas, is set to end next week. The program was extended by four months in late December after Johnson missed his first attempt to hold a vote.

The privacy amendments were not negotiable when the Reauthorization was up for a vote. “We have to have these amendments,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, told Politico in February. There is no way we are not going to have them.

Per CQ Roll Call, Johnson praised the latest version of a bill in a letter to colleagues, saying it contains dozens of “specific reforms,” including new procedures to curtail the FBI and “institute unprecedented transparency across the FISA process.”

“If our bill fails, we will be faced with an impossible choice and can expect the Senate to jam us with a clean extension that includes no reforms at all,” Johnson wrote. It is clearly not an acceptable option.

Reply to “Comment on ‘Second Amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Services Act'” by Donald J. Trump

If we eavesdrop on Americans and they correspond with the Islamic State, their communications may be captured, according to the chair of the intelligence committee. “You would want us to do that. Americans would like us to make sure we keep ourselves safe.

It’s unclear whether Johnson will be able to get other members of his party to fall in line. Some members of the Freedom Caucus are in favor of reform of the Foreign Intelligence Services Act. Donald Trump waded into the debate. Fisa should be killed. IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Due to an editing error, a story was published before a vote on the bill to greenlight debate on Section 702 renewal. The previous version of the article stated that “The House greenlit debate for the bill on Wednesday.”

U.S. Section 702 is a “troubled” program, and should be revisited, as a warning to the Intel community

The outcome of today was preventable, but it requires the Intelligence Community and its allies to realize that their days of unaccountable and unconditional spy on Americans are over.

James Czerniawaski, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity, a Washington, DC, think tank pushing for changes to Section 702, says that despite recognizing its value, it remained a “troubled program” in need of “significant and meaningful reforms.”

Declassified filings released by the FISA court last year revealed that the FBI had misused the 702 program more than 278,000 times, including, as reported by The Washington Post, against “crime victims, Jan. 6 riot suspects, people arrested at protests after the policing killing of George Floyd in 2020 and—in one case—19,000 donors to a congressional candidate.”

A group of attorneys said Tuesday in a statement that the amendment offered up by the Intel committee risked increasing the number of US businesses being forced to cooperate with the program.

“It seems Congressional leadership needs to be reminded that these privacy protections are overwhelmingly popular,” says Sean Vitka, policy director at Demand Progress, a civil liberties-focused nonprofit. The unfaithful reformers are willing and able to do that.

The proposed changes to Section 702, championed by members of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as Johnson, who previously voted in favor of a warrant requirement, have been criticized by privacy experts.

Although the government says it only focuses on foreigners, it has acknowledged gathering large amounts of US communications in the process. It says it is impossible to calculate the actual amount. It claims that federal agents are free to look at those wiretaps without a warrant once they are in the government’s possession.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation maintains a database that holds some of the data collected under the program, which is why it remains controversial.

The certifications, which are only required due to the “incidental” collection of US calls, generally permit the program’s use in cases involving terrorism, cybercrime, and weapons proliferation. The program is vital in fighting the flood of drugs entering the US from overseas.

The Department of Justice applied for new certifications. Last week, it announced they’d been approved by the court. The program allows the government to issue new directives if it chooses, but it is not clear if the program has the power to do that.

Johnson lost 19 Republicans on Tuesday in a procedural vote that traditionally falls along party lines. The Republicans still control the House by a small margin. The failed vote comes just hours after former US president Donald Trump ordered Republicans to “Kill FISA” in a 2 am post on Truth Social, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, under which the program is authorized.

The future of a law that requires certain businesses to wiretap foreigners has been in question after three different attempts by House Speaker Mike Johnson to get the support for reauthorizing the critical US surveillance program.