3 Bills Aim to Update Section 702 Legislation
Two Senate bills join House legislation to reauthorize Section 702 surveillance authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., vowed to reporters Wednesday to do “whatever it takes” to get public debate and a vote. “This needs to be debated” and there should be open amendments, Paul said. He’s worried Congress won’t debate legislation, but wait until the last minute and append 702 authority to a must-pass continuing resolution. The authority expires at year's end.
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Paul joined Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in introducing the USA Rights Act (see 1710240029) Tuesday, which has companion House legislation. Separately, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted Tuesday 12-3 to approve the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act, and a third bill put forward Oct. 6 in the House Judiciary Committee, the USA Liberty Act (HR-3989), has 12 co-sponsors. Paul said he’s strongly opposed to the Trump administration’s goal of reauthorizing the legislation without amendment on a permanent basis, and thinks there's more support among House Republicans for stronger privacy protections. “We need more rules, more reports, more transparency,” Paul said.
“The USA Rights Act’s reforms are critical to protecting the civil liberties and privacy of Americans,” said Ashkhen Kazaryan, legal fellow at TechFreedom. “Congress is on the right path to finding the right balance between national security and civil liberties.” He praised the legislation for fixing a back-door “loophole” that exposes Americans to data collections when foreigners are targeted, and strengthening oversight by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
Few details were available about the Senate intelligence bill, which would extend surveillance authority to Dec. 31, 2025. Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said in a statement the bill is a result of “extensive discussion and debate that began with an open hearing this past summer.” The legislation would strengthen PCLOB and its ability to hire and deliberate, increase penalties against leakers, require additional transparency into 702 targets through reporting to Congress and provide more privacy protections, the committee said.
More than 40 civil liberties groups backed USA Rights, but several groups expressed reservations about the Burr bill as providing too few privacy protections. “The Burr bill pays little attention to the fundamental rights of millions of Americans impacted every day by unconstitutional government surveillance or the harms to democracy that inevitably result,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation Director-Grassroots Advocacy Shahid Buttar. Congress shouldn't reauthorize programs it hasn’t investigated,” Buttar said.
Access Now said the Burr bill is "shockingly invasive," codifying an "even broader collection and use of surveillance data" than existing law. The group said USA Rights "doesn’t go far enough to make the vital and necessary reforms that matter for protecting human rights," suggested merging it with the USA Liberty Act "might be barely sufficient to protect the free flow of data overseas and thereby positively impact global data privacy and U.S. economic interests internationally."