Senate Republicans aim for 45-day FISA extension

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Republicans have urged their Democratic colleagues to agree to extend the expiring federal surveillance law for another 45 days, but one Democrat wants a shorter extension under one condition.

“The Democrats are debating [the extension] right now,” Mr. Thune, South Dakota Republican, told reporters Thursday at the U.S. Capitol.

“We had suggested 45 days, but we’ll see what the traffic will bear. I think if you look at the calendar and schedule, we’re going to need that time.”

Mr. Thune said an agreement will emerge and move across the Senate floor to the House and back to the Senate.

“In my view, it’s going to take a certain amount of time, and I think that gives us a sufficient amount of time, but the Dems are batting it around right now,” he said.

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 their struggles are far from over.

The bill that passed, a three-year reauthorization of a foreign surveillance law that expires Thursday, cannot clear the Senate.

The Senate is discussing sending the House back a short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to buy more time for negotiations that have already run past the initial deadline.

However, Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat and a leading proponent of the privacy changes in the FISA reauthorization legislation of Section 702, wants to extend the deadline for three weeks on the condition that the government declassifies the FISA court’s March 17 ruling on the authority to collect foreign intelligence.

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.”

Mr. Wyden said on the floor of the Senate, “The government is already required by law to declassify this court ruling. This is an important part of the debate. … All that my bill requires is that the opinion be declassified now, now before Congress votes on renewing Section 702.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, objected to Mr. Wyden’s bill and said his proposed three-week extension really covers only two weeks because the senators are out next week and lawmakers can’t discuss key FISA matters over the phone or through text messages because they’re classified.

Mr. Cotton said a longer period is needed than what Mr. Wyden proposed because members of both chambers must hash out their differences on the FISA reauthorization.

“The House adopted various reforms. About 90% of House Republicans voted for that bill. More than 40 House Democrats voted for that bill. If we were to vote on that bill today, the vast majority of Senate Republicans would vote for it, but there are enough Senate Democrats to block its passage today, which I recognize,” Mr. Cotton said.

“We therefore need more time for negotiations. These negotiations are highly complex and technical.”

Mr. Cotton pushed for further and longer negotiations involving not only senators, but also members of the House, the speaker, the minority leader, the chairman and the vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and the chairman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

According to Mr. Cotton, Mr. Wyden said the three-month extension, which ends following the August recess, is too long.

The Arkansas senator said, “We’d even be OK with the 45-day extension, which gives us until about the middle of June.”

Mr. Wyden continued to insist he would support a short-term extension for Section 702 on Thursday before the program expired, but would not specify on the floor as to whether he would support the 45-day extension without the declassification of the March 17 FISA court ruling.