The Senate passed a bill reauthorizing Section 720 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial program that allows warrantless spying on foreign “targets.” But a long, bewildering and drawn-out fight over the amendments kept the Senate in session past midnight on Friday, when the surveillance program officially expired.
To be clear, the espionage was not actually going to stop. Like a senator. Mike Lee (R-Ohio) noted on the Senate floor Friday afternoon that the FISA court recently granted the government’s request to extend the program until April 2025.
Sep. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the FISA court’s extension of Section 702 certification “does not mean the program can continue uninterrupted for another year.”
“In the event of a violation,” Cornyn continued, “at midnight tonight, some communications service providers will cease doing business with the US government. That’s exactly what happened in 2008 when the predecessor to Section 702, called the Keeping America Safe Act, expired.”
“The expiration of Law 702 would be an ‘act of unilateral disarmament in the face of the Chinese Communist Party.'”
Cornyn praised the importance of the FISA spy program, saying: “FBI Director Chris Wray said that ending 702 early would be, quote, an act of unilateral disarmament in the face of the Chinese Communist Party, quote close.” So the stakes are extremely high.”
Sep. Mark Warner (D-Va.) also emphasized the urgency of reviving Section 702, saying that “sixty percent” of the president’s daily communications come from material collected through the surveillance program.
Less than three hours before Section 702 expires, Sen. Rand Paul (Republican from Kentucky) introduced a version of the Fourth Amendment to the No Sale Act as an amendment to the reauthorization bill. (It ultimately failed 31–61.) Paul was clearly disappointed by other senators’ comments that it was too late to make new amendments to the bill.
“The idea that we don’t have enough time is false,” Paul said. “The only reason we don’t have time is because the proponents of this bill have delayed it until the last hour. We had five years to extend this!” In defense of our colleagues, the House of Representatives three unsuccessful votes on Section 702 before he was finally able to send his bill to the other chamber, leaving the Senate just days before FISA adjourned for its own consideration.
“The house is still here,” Paul noted. “They are going to vote tomorrow. We should pass good amendments today and send them to the House tomorrow.”
The House of Representatives plans to meet Saturday to vote on relief packages and a potential TikTok ban.
There are two hours left until Section 702 expires. the so-called act of unilateral disarmament represented by the Chinese Communist Party, Senators then paused for five minutes to congratulate Susan Collins on her 9,000th roll call vote. “Day after day, year after year, our senior appropriator has demonstrated her dedication: do your homework, show up to vote on all issues and on time,” the senator said. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).
The Wyden-Hawley Amendment failed, meaning the next iteration of the FISA oversight program will be more extensive than before.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) introduced an amendment that would break the language in a House bill that expanded the definition of “electronic communications service provider.” Under the new House provision, anyone “who has access to equipment that is or may be used for the transmission or storage of wire or electronic communications.” The expansion, Wyden said, would force “ordinary Americans and small businesses to engage in covert, unauthorized espionage.” The Wyden-Hawley amendment failed 34-58, meaning the next iteration of the FISA oversight program will be more expansive than before.
Both feelings. Paul and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced separate amendments to establish warrant requirements for surveillance of Americans. Similar amendment fell through the house the vote was 212–212. Durbin’s narrower warrant requirement would not require intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant for request for these communications, although this requires a person access their.
Sep. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) objected to requiring warrants for Americans to communicate on the grounds that many terrorists—such as the 2015 San Bernardino bombers or the Boston Marathon bombers—are Americans. “If we suspected them of terrorism and,” he began to say, before catching himself and then correcting himself, “none of this would have been prevented, but if these cases arose today and we suspected them of terrorism, then for this amendment, you will not be able to monitor them to prevent a terrorist attack.”
Paul’s amendment to the warrant requirement failed 11-82, Durbin’s amendment failed 42-50.
Lee introduced an amendment that would expand the role of amicus curiae briefs in FISA litigation. By this point, half an hour before midnight and the official expiration of Section 720, the senators were noticeably weakened.
Rubio began to object to the amendment, but Warner stepped in and took the lead, saying, “If we can get this and pass the bill before noon – before midnight – we can achieve our goal, and I am committed to working with everyone to get it done.” “Make sure we can continue to address amicus proceedings in the next Intel authorization bill.” Earlier in the day, Warner told his colleagues that the reauthorization was “only for two years,” so they might as well pass it.
Lee’s amendment failed 40–53.
“Mr. President, at the very last moment, bipartisanship has prevailed here in the Senate,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said as the final amendment died. “We are reauthorizing FISA right before it expires at midnight – twenty minutes before midnight. All day long we persisted and persisted and persisted, trying to achieve a breakthrough, and in the end we succeeded and completed FISA.”
The Senate began voting on the renewal bill fifteen minutes before midnight, crossing the 60-vote threshold around midnight. As of this writing, the Senate has still not officially adjourned.
The bill has now been sent to the president. If signed into law, the Section 720 surveillance program will expire in 2026, at which point we will have to do it all over again.
