Reauthorizing a key U.S. spy program in the nick of time: The Biden Administration on Saturday night urged senators to redouble their efforts

WASHINGTON — After its midnight deadline, the Senate voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse.

The two year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence was approved by 60-34 with bipartisan support. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Joe Biden will sign the bill.

“In the nick of time, we are reauthorizing FISA right before it expires at midnight,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said when voting on final passage began 15 minutes before the deadline. In the end, we have succeeded because we persisted all day and persisted in trying to reach a breakthrough.

U.S. officials have said the surveillance tool, first authorized in 2008 and renewed several times since then, is crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions, and foreign espionage and has also produced intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations, such as the 2022 killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

“If you miss a key piece of intelligence, you may miss something that could endanger troops,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. You could miss a plan to harm the country here, domestically, or somewhere else. So in this particular case, there’s real-life implications.”

The Biden administration thought it had the power to collect intelligence for more than one year because of a recent opinion by the Foreign Intelligence surveille court.

Still, officials had said that court approval shouldn’t be a substitute for congressional authorization, especially since communications companies could cease cooperation with the government if the program is allowed to lapse.

The US was already scrambling before the law expired after two major service providers said they would stop complying with orders through the program, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But despite the Biden administration’s urging and classified briefings to senators this week on the crucial role they say the spy program plays in protecting national security, a group of progressive and conservative lawmakers who were agitating for further changes had refused to accept the version of the bill the House sent over last week.

They wanted to vote on changes to the legislation that would address civil liberties loopholes in the bill. In the end, Schumer was able to cut a deal that would allow critics to receive floor votes on their amendments in exchange for speeding up the process for passage.

Proponents of changing the program had suggested limiting the FBI’s access to information about Americans. The tool can also be used to collect communications of Americans when they are in contact with foreigners in other countries. 2 Democrat in the chamber, was pushing a proposal that would have required U.S. Officials to obtain a warrant before accessing American communications.

If the government wants to spy on me or any American, they should have to get permission from a judge, the same as our forefathers intended in the constitution.

In the past year, U.S. officials have revealed a number of abuses and mistakes that FBI analysts have made regarding the intelligence repository, including a member of Congress and participants in the racial justice protests of 2020.

But members on both the House and Senate intelligence committees as well as the Justice Department warned requiring a warrant would severely handicap officials from quickly responding to imminent national security threats.

“I think that is a risk that we cannot afford to take with the vast array of challenges our nation faces around the world,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Friday.

Senator Cornyn: “The Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale” and the Senate’s reauthorization of Section 702. After the FISA Court Rejuvenation

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) claimed that the FISA court’s extension of Section 702 certification “doesn’t mean the program can continue uninterrupted for another year.”

The president’s daily brief comes from material collected through the spy program, as claimed by Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).

The Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act was put into motion less than three hours prior to the end of Section 702. It ended with a failed 31- 61. He was incensed at other senators saying it was too late to add new amendments.

Paul said the House was still here. They are going to be voting tomorrow. We should pass the good amendments today, send them to the House tomorrow.”

With two hours to go before Section 702’s expiration, the so-called act of unilateral disarmament in the face of the Chinese Communist Party, the senators then took a five-minute interlude to congratulate Susan Collins for making her 9000th roll call vote. “Day after day, year after year, our senior-most appropriator has demonstrated, through her dedication: do your homework, show up to vote on everything, on time,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The amendment was introduced by Senators Ron Wyden and Josh Hawley to strike language that expanded the definition of a “electronic communications service provider.” Under the House’s new provision, anyone “who has access to equipment that is being or may be used to transmit or store wire or electronic communications.” The Wyden-Hawley amendment would have expanded the program and required Americans and small businesses to conduct secret, warrantless espionage.

It was argued that many terrorists, like the 2015 San Bernardino shooters or the Boston Marathon bomber, are American. If we suspected terrorism, he said, you wouldn’t be able to surveil them, even though none of these were prevented.

An amendment was introduced by Lee that would expand the role of scrutiny in court proceedings. At this point, with about half an hour until midnight and the official expiration of Section 720, senators were visibly flagging.

The Senate commenced voting on the reauthorization bill with fifteen minutes to midnight, clearing a 60 vote threshold at about midnight. The Senate hasn’t officially adjourned.