הסנאט מאשר מחדש את תוכנית הריגול של FISA, אך לא לפני שתפוגה בחצות

The Senate has passed a bill that reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial program that allows surveillance without warrants for "foreign targets." But a long, arduous battle over amendments kept the Senate in session after midnight on Friday as the surveillance program officially expired.

Senator Mike Lee (R-OH) clarified that this surveillance was not intended to stop. As he stated on the Senate floor Friday afternoon, the FISA court recently received a request from the government to allow the program to continue until April 2025.

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) argued that extending approval of FISA's Section 702 "doesn't mean the program can continue disruption-free for another year."

"In the event of a lapse," Cornyn continued, "tonight at midnight, some telecommunications providers will stop cooperating with the United States government. That's exactly what happened in 2008 when the 702, then known as the Protect America Act, expired."

Cornyn emphasized the importance of the FISA surveillance program and said, "FBI Director Chris Ray said that the reauthorization of 702 would […]".

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) also highlighted the urgency of reauthorizing Section 702, arguing that "sixty percent" of the President's daily brief comes from material collected through the surveillance program.

Less than three hours before the expiration of Section 702, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) presented an amendment that was not voted on as an amendment to the reauthorization bill. (It ultimately failed 31-61.) Paul was frustrated by the late addition of new amendments to the bill, as he felt it was too late to introduce new changes.

"The idea that we don't have enough time is a strange one," Paul said. "The only reason we don't have time is that the supporters of this bill delayed it until the last hour. We had five years to renew this!" After three failed votes on Section 702 before he managed to finally send his bill to the House, leaving the Senate with just a few days before the FISA setting sun.

"The House is still here," Paul noted. "They are going to vote tomorrow. We need to pass good amendments today, send them to the House tomorrow."

The House is set to convene on Saturday to vote on relief packages and a potential ban on TikTok.

Two hours remain until the expiration of Section 702, which is called a one-sided disarmament measure against the Chinese Communist Party; after that, senators took a five-minute recess to congratulate Susan Collins on casting her 9,000th vote in the Senate. "Day after day, year after year, our senior partner has proven, through dedication: do your homework, show up to vote on everything, on time," said Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced an amendment that weakened the language on the House bill that expanded the definition of "electronic communication service provider." Under the new language, anyone "with access to equipment used or capable of transmitting or storing wire or electronic communications" falls under this definition. Wyden argued that the expansion would force "average Americans and small businesses to carry out secret, warrantless surveillance." The Wyden-Hawley amendment failed 34-58, indicating that the next iteration of the FISA surveillance program will be more extensive than before.

Both Senator Paul and Dick Durbin (D-IL) presented separate amendments that imposed requirements for overseeing Americans under surveillance. A similar amendment failed in the House in a vote of 212-212. Durbin's more limited demand for a warrant will not require intelligence agencies to obtain a direct warrant for such communication, though it does require a primitive approach.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) opposed the demand for a warrant for American communications based on a variety of terrorist concerns—such as the San Bernardino shooters in 2015 or the Boston Marathon bombers—they are Americans. "If we suspected them of terrorism and—," he began saying before catching himself, then corrected himself, "none of these were prevented, but if these cases occurred today and we suspected them of terrorism, under this amendment, you wouldn't be able to surveil them to prevent a terrorist attack."

Paul's warrant requirement amendment failed 11-82, Durbin's warrant amendment failed 42-50.

Lee presented an amendment that expands the role of amicus curiae reviewers in FISA court proceedings. At this point, with half an hour to go until midnight and the official expiration of Section 720, senators essentially gave up.

Rubio began to voice his objection to the amendment, but Warner intervened and took over, saying, "If we can get this and pass the bill by noon—before midnight—we can meet our goal, and I commit to working with everyone to do that. I'm confident we can continue to scrutinize the amicus proceedings in the next authorization bill for Intel." Earlier today, Warner told his colleagues that the reauthorization is "only for two years," so maybe they should pursue it.

Lee's amendment failed 40-53.

"Senator, in the recent past, bipartisanship has reigned here in the Senate," said Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as the final amendment was defeated. "We are reauthorizing FISA, just before its expiration at midnight—twenty minutes before midnight. All day, we've been insisting and insisting and insisting to try to reach a breakthrough, and in the end we succeeded and we are closing FISA."

The Senate began voting on the reauthorization bill with fifteen minutes until midnight and reached the threshold of 60 votes at around midnight. As of writing these lines, the reauthorization has not been officially rejected.

The bill is now sent to the President. If signed, Section 702 of the surveillance program will end in 2026, and thereafter we will need to renew it once more.