Senate extends federal surveillance law for 45 days, sends to House

Senate lawmakers on Thursday approved a short-term extension of a provision in the federal surveillance law to hash out the final terms of its reauthorization.

The vote happened after the chamber gave unanimous consent to a 45-day extension before it went back to the House for approval.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreed to the extension after Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, 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 recent 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 will be completed and the opinion released publicly within 15 days.

Mr. Wyden, a leading proponent of the privacy changes in the FISA reauthorization legislation of Section 702, previously called for the declassification of a March 17 ruling by the FISA Court.

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.”

The House must now agree to the 45-day extension.

House Republican leaders negotiated their way through fierce intraparty opposition and passed on Wednesday two of the three key pieces of legislation on their agenda for the week, but they still face more obstacles.