WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — The House passed a bill Friday to reauthorize a key U.S. government surveillance tool, but without including broad restrictions on how the FBI uses this program to search for Americans’ data.
The bill, approved 273-147, now goes to the Senate where its future is uncertain.
The program is set to expire on April 19 unless Congress acts.
[Earlier Report: House Will Try Again on Reauthorization of Surveillance Program]
House Speaker Mike Johnson brought forward the revised proposal, which would reform and extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as Section 702 for a shortened period of two years, instead of the full five-year reauthorization first proposed.
Johnson hoped that the shorter timeline would sway GOP critics toward pushing continued debate on the issue into the next presidential term.
A separate provision, ending warrantless surveillance of Americans, was also offered on the floor Friday but despite gaining some support, the measure ultimately failed to get a majority of the votes required to pass the House.
Skepticism of the government’s spy powers has grown dramatically in recent years, particularly on the right. Republicans have clashed for months over what a legislative overhaul of the FISA surveillance program should look like, creating divisions that spilled onto the House floor this week as 19 Republicans broke with their party to prevent the bill from coming up for a vote.
However, the revised proposal with a shortened timeline helped flip some conservative opposition to the legislation.
“The two-year timeframe is a much better landing spot because it gives us two years to see if any of this works rather than kicking it out five years,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said Thursday. “They say these reforms are going to work. Well, I guess we’ll find out.”
The legislation in question would permit the U.S. government to collect, without a warrant, the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization is currently tied to a series of reforms aimed at satisfying critics who complained of civil liberties violations against Americans.
Though the program is technically set to expire next Friday, the Biden administration has said it expects its authority to collect intelligence to remain operational for a bit longer.
First authorized in 2008, the spy tool has been renewed several times since then as U.S. officials see it as crucial in disrupting terror attacks, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage. It has also produced intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations.
But the administration’s efforts to secure reauthorization of the program have repeatedly encountered fierce, and bipartisan, pushback.
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