House sends foreign surveillance reform bill to Senate

The House on Monday settled its procedural business on a bill to reform the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers, kicking the controversial reauthorization over to the Senate.

The Monday vote came after a tie in the chamber on an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The push by privacy hawks was down to the wire, failing with a 212-212 vote. 

Two representatives then offered competing motions on whether to reconsider the issue, pushing the House to again consider the FISA bill after otherwise approving it without a warrant requirement on Friday.

Lawmakers voted 259-128 Monday to table the motion to again take up the bill.

The vote leaves the reauthorization bill heading to the Senate without a warrant requirement that united some firebrand conservatives with progressive Democrats.

Section 702 empowers the nation’s intelligence agencies to spy only on noncitizens living abroad. But in the course of those operations, the government frequently sweeps up communications from Americans in contact with the foreigners under surveillance. 

While those in favor of a warrant said it was necessary to protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights, those opposed argued it was not legally required and would gut the bill, stopping law enforcement from acting on information in real time.

The bill reauthorizes FISA 702 for another two years and includes some reforms to the program, including a drastic winnowing of the number of personnel who can authorize use of the 702 database to query information relating to a U.S. person. Such queries will also now get an after-the-fact audit.

“It is best understood as the most comprehensive set of reforms in the history of the 702 program. This is a true reform bill that will change the way we do business, especially the FBI, in a way that will be more protective of civil liberties and privacy,” a senior Justice Department official told The Hill Monday.

In the Senate, the bill likewise faces opposition from those wishing to see stronger reforms.

“This bill represents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the chamber’s Intelligence Committee who has pushed for reforms to Section 702, wrote on social platform X shortly after the passage of the House bill.

“I will do everything in my power to stop it from passing in the Senate.”