Without action from Congress, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will soon expire, and in a report released last week by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, lawmakers called for its swift reformation and reauthorization.
Section 702 authorizes collection of specific types of foreign intelligence information as identified by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The committee labeled it one of the most effective tools used by the Intelligence Community in defense of the nation – and one found constitutional by all federal courts to date. However, the committee report called for 45 FISA reforms that go well beyond 702 alone.
“Our report outlines reforms necessary for FISA’s reauthorization,” Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) said. “The United States is currently at its greatest risk of a terrorist attack in nearly a decade. We cannot afford to let this critical national security tool expire. I look forward to working with my colleagues on this critical issue before the end of the year.”
U.S. Reps. Darin LaHood (R-IL) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) joined Turner in producing the report.
FISA court judges are senate-confirmed judges, and the FISA Court is composed of 11 of these federal district court judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Each serves a maximum term of seven years, staggered to keep the court continually staffed and operating. The last time Section 702 was temporarily reauthorized was in 2017, by then-President Donald Trump, who openly called for a permanent reauthorization at that time.
Of the revisions pushed by the committee report, the lawmakers called for 19 provisions to stop FBI querying abuses, such as restricting the number of FBI personnel capable of authorizing a U.S. person query and requiring the FBI to obtain warrants to conduct queries on an American for evidence of a crime. They also called for 14 provisions to prevent another incident like that which led to surveillance of former Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page, seven provisions to revise the FISA court and other provisions. Among the seven provisions to overhaul the FISA court itself were calls to allow members of Congress to attend the court, requiring transcripts of the court hearing to be made available to Congress and assigning court-appointed counsel to scrutinize surveillance applications of U.S. residents.
Notably, the report also called for all foreigners applying for a visa, immigration or asylum to be vetted using 702 queries going forward.