House Rules Postpones Planned Vote on Section 702 Bill
The House Rules Committee postponed Wednesday's vote sending to the floor the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act (HR-4478) renewing Section 702 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority until Dec. 31, 2021. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., vowed to filibuster if the bill comes…
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to the Senate. The House Intelligence Committee passed it in an acrimonious vote Dec.1 (see 1712010044). Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who strongly backed additional privacy safeguards for Section 702 searches, said HR-4478 “is an eleventh-hour attempt to sneak an unchecked warrantless surveillance program through Congress.” New America’s Open Technology Institute opposes the bill because it “makes no meaningful reforms” to privacy, said Robyn Greene, policy counsel and government affairs lead. The bill would allow the controversial “abouts collection” provision that permits collection of Americans’ communications that reference a surveillance target, and “back-door searches,” which enable law enforcement to access the Section 702 database without a warrant. American Civil Liberties Union Legislative Counsel Neema Singh Guliani said the bill would "open up new avenues for government overreach."