Before the year’s end Congress needs to decide what it’s going to do about an important regulation overseeing the authority of federal intelligence agencies to engage in surveillance.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments permits the federal government to engage in surveillance of foreign targets that are not on U.S. soil, secretly and without warrants.
Section 702 sunsets at the end of the year if Congress does not act to renew it.
These surveillance authorities have since become a source of controversy because, despite the fact that it this snooping is only supposed to target foreigners outside the United States, it has become increasingly clear to the public that Section 702 surveillance was also drawing in domestic communications from Americans when they were communicating with (or sometimes even about) a foreign target.
Scott Shackford explains the three bills under consideration to reform Section 702. One is excellent (and no wonder, with privacy-protecting Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Wyden involved); one is worse but represents the compromise option; and one is absolutely terrible and would codify a significant violation of Americans’ Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted searches.
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