A vigorous effort by right-wing Republicans in Congress to vilify the FBI on allegations of political bias has jeopardized a program that allows spy agencies to conduct unsecured surveillance. against foreign targets, depriving support for a leading intelligence tool and amplifying demands for tighter limits.
The once secret program – created after the 9/11 attacks and described by intelligence officials as crucial to stopping hackers, espionage services and terrorism abroad – has long been met with opposition from Democrats who feared it could trample on Americans’ civil liberties. But the law that allows it expires in December, and opposition from Republicans, who have historically supported it, has grown as the GOP stepped up its attacks on the FBI, taking a single page. from former President Donald J. Trump and his supporters.
Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, a key Trump ally who is leading a special House investigation into “weaponization,” said: “We’re not going to be able to authorize it. again in its present form – impossible. ” of the government against the conservatives. “We are concerned about surveillance, period.”
At issue is a program that allows the government to collect — on land and without a warrant — the communications of targeted foreigners abroad, including when those people are interacting with Americans. . Leaders of both parties have warned the Biden administration that Congress will not renew the law that legalized it, known as Section 702, without changes to prevent federal agents from freely finding it. search for email, phone, and other electronic records of Americans communicating with foreign nationals under surveillance.
Since the program was last renewed in 2018, the GOP’s approach to law enforcement and data collection has undergone a dramatic transformation. Disdain for agencies that benefit from unsecured surveillance has become a major party trend, especially in the House, where Republicans insist that investigations by The FBI on Mr. Trump is biased and complains of a broader government plot to persecute conservatives – including some accused of storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021 – for their political beliefs. They argued that federal law enforcement agencies could not trust Americans’ records and should block access to them.
Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, who supported the program in 2018, said: “You can’t force me to vote to reauthorize 702. which has been linked to the BLM movement, and neither do I. suffer equally from both.”
Congress created Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008 and has renewed the program twice since, largely thanks to overwhelming support from Republican lawmakers. But the dramatic change on Capitol Hill has made a new generation of Republicans less protective of Washington’s post-9/11 counterterrorism powers, and about half of House Republicans have never been. now vote on that.
“This will be a first impression for many of them,” said Representative Darin LaHood, Republican of Illinois, a supporter of the program who is part of the Intelligence Committee’s six-member working group trying to trying to determine how Congress could restrict the program without obstruction. It. “The thought that 702 and FISA just focus on terrorism – I think that story has to be changed. We need to focus on China, we need to focus on Russia, we need to focus on Iran and North Korea.”
The Biden administration is making a similar case with lawmakers, urging them to extend the Section 702 program, which Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, has called “very important” to prevent national security threats from China, Russia, cyber attacks and terrorist groups.
But far-right lawmakers have embarked on a larger and more political effort to counter the measure. They captured the official decision that federal agents eavesdropping about a Trump campaign adviser and more recently revealed that FBI analysts inappropriately used Section 702 to seek information on hundreds of Americans under surveillance in connection with the January 6 attacks and the Black Lives Matter protests following the attack. murder of George Floyd in 2020 by a police officer.
Justice Department and FBI officials have tried to defend themselves against lawmakers’ outrage over those revelations, pointing to steps they’ve taken to limit the chances that agents get permission to test Americans’ contact information collected under Section 702. They argue that the changes have reduced the number of such queries from about 3 million in 2021 to about 120,000 last year.
But their opening shots did not shake skeptical Democrats, who support the Biden administration supposedly in need of an extension of the spying program.
In recent years, Capitol Hill has welcomed a number of new Democrats with national security backgrounds who advocate expanding the program. But convincing others was a challenge, as most members of the party — including Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader — voted against the extension. Even President Biden voted against legislation legalizing the program in 2008, when he was a senator.
Democratic advocates have been adamant that any reauthorization would have to include significant restrictions on how and when agents can search their databases for information. news about Americans, in the hope that those protections will assuage lawmakers’ long-standing concerns about potential abuse.
“We have made it very clear to the administration that there will be no explicit reauthorization — there is no way that will lead to it,” said Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, who is also on the panel. work Section 702 of the Intelligence Committee said.
He suggested that the restrictions would include limits on when agents can query their databases for information about Americans and warrant claims obtained in some cases.
Representative Chris Stewart, Republican of Utah, who is a member of the Working Groups of the Intelligence Committee and Weaponization Committee, said some members of his party could be persuaded to reauthorize the program by “profound reforms”.
“But there will still be some people who will never allow this,” Mr Stewart added. “Joining the weaponization committee, I got insights into some of their thinking — and there are some of them who will never join.”
The administration has signaled that it is willing to discuss other changes to the theory. But officials from the FBI and Justice Department this month rejected specific proposals in their first public appearance on Capitol Hill to discuss the matter, worrying lawmakers.
“I have no doubt about the foreign intelligence value of this, but the American side of this really concerns Congress,” Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia, told officials. during the Judiciary Committee hearing. “I don’t think you’ve effectively made the case that there shouldn’t be a claim.”
The committee’s chairman, Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, did not see the changes as sufficient. “If the reforms you mentioned in 2021 and 2022 are the only ones you bring to this committee as we discuss the future of Section 702, then I have to see more,” he said. with agency officials.
