Congress passes 45-day extension of federal surveillance law as debate over protections continues

Congress punted its deadline to reauthorize a foreign surveillance law for the second time on Thursday as lawmakers continue to debate privacy protections for Americans’ data caught in the spying operations.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was set to expire at midnight after lawmakers previously extended the initial April 20 reauthorization deadline by 10 days.

The Senate passed a second extension of 45 days by voice vote on Thursday afternoon.​

​The House then cleared the measure for President Trump’s signature in a 261-111 vote.

Some House Republicans were frustrated that the Senate declined to take up a three-year FISA reauthorization that the lower chamber passed on Wednesday.

That measure included new oversight provisions and criminal penalties for abuses of the surveillance authority.

However, it did not add a requirement for executive officials to obtain a judicial warrant before accessing Americans’ data swept up in the foreign surveillance that privacy-concerned lawmakers in both parties sought.

The 45-day extension of the law allows the warrant fight to continue.

“Every day that we go by without having another long-term extension is a day that we continue to have reforms as a possibility,” Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, told The Washington Times.

Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat and privacy advocate, initially objected to the 45-day extension but agreed to let it pass on one condition.

The senator said he received an assurance from the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Mark Warner of Virginia, that they would send a letter to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to declassify a March 17 FISA court decision.

“A letter [will be] sent very shortly from Chairman Cotton and Ranking Member Warner to the DNI and the Attorney General — an order publicly available consistent with the protection on sources and methods as soon as practicable in order to inform the Senate debate on reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” Mr. Wyden said on the Senate floor.

He said they expect this declassification review to be completed and the opinion released publicly within 15 days.

The judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court who issued last month’s ruling raised concerns about filtering tools the FBI, NSA and other agencies deployed to go through raw data collected under Section 702.

Specifically, the court “determined that the proposed approach for the discreet technical capabilities at issue could present deficiencies,” and the Trump administration is “working expeditiously to understand the mission impact of the court’s order.”