President Biden signed a bill on Saturday to continue the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) surveillance program without warrants for another two years.
The Senate passed the reauthorization bill early Saturday, after hours of intense debate, narrowly avoiding a key national intelligence gathering capability going dark.
Senators voted 60-34 to send the bill to Biden’s desk shortly after the midnight deadline. The program looked as if it was headed for a lapse until Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced a breakthrough on the Senate floor.
The legislation extends the government’s ability to spy on foreigners located abroad, a process that also sweeps up communications of Americans they are in contact with.
The bill, called the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, enacts numerous reforms to FISA Section 702, even as it falls short of expectations from privacy hawks.
Following the vote, the White House issued a statement applauding Congress for passing what they called “one of the United States’ most vital intelligence collection tools.”
“The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act will retain essential authority to understand and protect against a wide range of dangerous threats to Americans while enhancing safeguards for privacy and civil liberties through the most robust set of reforms ever included in legislation to reauthorize Section 702,” National Security Advise