FISA Reauthorization battle heats up – deadline is April 20

March 20, 2026

It’s that time again! Some FISA Section 702 warrantless wiretapping powers will sunset unless they’re renewed by April 20, so Congress has to do something. The 2024 battle ended up badly for reformers; the two-year reauthorization in the Reforming (Ha-Ha) Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) mostly preserving the status quo and actually expanding surveillance powers. This time, there are multiple reform proposals on the table, although surveillance hawks in both parties are pushing to allow the Trump administration to keep its powers via a “clean” reauthorization.

The GSRA (Government Surveillance Reform Act), sponsored by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Representatives Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Zoe Lofgren (D-California), is the only bipartisan bicameral reform bill. Sen. Wyden’s website lists the following reforms:

  • Closing the backdoor search loophole: The bill requires the federal government to get a warrant to access Americans’ private communications gathered under Section 702, with important exceptions for emergency situations.
  • Closing the data broker loophole: The bill bans the federal government from buying Americans’ data from data brokers without a warrant.
  • Prohibiting reverse targeting: The bill prohibits using surveillance on foreigners overseas through Section 702 as a pretext for gathering data on Americans.
  • Repealing the “make everyone a spy” provision: This bill repeals a controversial 2024 expansion that allows the government to force millions of Americans and companies to secretly spy on its behalf.
  • Reforming intelligence collection outside FISA: This bill protects Americans from intelligence agencies using non-statutory authorities, including by prohibiting backdoor searches and reverse targeting outside of FISA.
  • Updating privacy protections for AI and other modern technologies: This bill requires federal law enforcement to get a warrant to surveil Americans’ location information, web browsing data, search and chatbot records, and car onboard and telematics data.
  • Halting warrantless collection of business records: This bill protects Americans’ data from warrantless collection under an authority that expired over five years ago.
  • Enhancing oversight and accountability: The bill strengthens judicial oversight, public reporting, and accountability requirements under FISA.

A wide range of civil rights and digital rights groups endorse the GSRA, including ACLU, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), Brennan Center for Justice, CDT, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Fight for the Future, Muslim Advocates, estore the Fourth, and Free Press Action. A section-by-section summary of the bill is here. The full bill text is here.

There are also two other reform bills that don’t go quite as far as GSRA, but also have wide support from civil liberties organizations:

  • The SAFE act, sponsored by Senator Lee along with Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) is another reform bill, although as EFF notes its reforms fall short in some ways. .
  • PLEWSA (the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act ), from Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona), also includes significant reforms, and may appeal more to Freedom Caucus members in the House.

Meanwhile, House Republican leaders are pushing an 18-month reauthorization without any reforms, a position the White House also supports. But progressive Democrats are opposing reauthorization without a warrant requirement, and there are enough Republican skeptics in the House that it’s not at all clear that a clean reauthorization has the votes – and a recent poll from Demand Progress found that only only 12% percent of voters think Congress should renew FISA without reforms. And to make matters even more complicated, a handful of Republicans are pressing to attach the SAVE Act to the FISA reauth (because hey why not bundle voter suppression with mass surveillance) and a federal judge has ordered the disclosure of FISA noncompliance incident records that the government is trying to keep secret.

So buckle up, it’s likely to be a very interesting month!

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Comment on DHS Records Modification

November 28, 2025

We received notice from Restore the Fourth about a comment period on a DHS change to the agency’s record system. Disturbingly, they have already made the change, but now are asking for retroactive approval. Sorry, no approval from us!

There are just 3 days left to comment, so have your say at this link.

Here is the text of Restore the Fourth’s e-mail announcing the comment period, which I sadly did not notice days ago when it was sent:

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), for the first time, has begun pooling data from DHS, the Social Security Administration, the IRS and state voter rolls, to generate a list of US citizens in its “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE)” database.

They have begun doing this without notifying the American public of this change in practice, and without offering an opportunity before they began for people to comment, violating the National Privacy Act of 1974. That Act, responding to Watergate, intentionally siloed federal datasets, preventing different federal agencies from sharing data except in very specific cases where justification and notification of the subject of the “investigation” is required.

Without that siloing, the government can go fishing across all of government to find anything that a pre-selected person has done wrong; and doing that violates the Fourth Amendment.

What USCIS is doing now is asking for public comment on these changes that have already happened, in order to get some sort of retrospective blessing and insulate themselves from legal challenges. We don’t bless it. We urge you to write comments objecting to it.

Below is the Restore the Fourth suggested e-mail with a list of talking points; use one or more, paraphrase, or write your own comment:
  • I oppose the change that DHS/USCIS has implemented to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS’) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database. Pooling data from DHS, the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and state voter data and other sources violates the National Data Privacy Act of 1974. The fact that DHS/USCIS is belatedly asking for comment about the changes that it has already implemented by accessing data from other federal agency databases in order to gather additional information on immigrants in violation of the National Data Privacy Act is deeply troubling because many Americans would have opposed this change had they been consulted ahead of the change, as the Act requires.
  • The National Privacy Act of 1974 created silos in order to prevent different federal agencies from sharing data except in very specific cases, and in those cases justification and notification of the subject of the “investigation” is required. Enacted in the aftermath of Watergate, the National Privacy Act was designed to protect Americans from investigations where the government is fishing for evidence that someone has committed a crime with no predicate based on probable cause that they have done anything criminal. Access by any agency to another agency’s data without probable cause to see specific data on a suspect is illegal in order to protect all of us, regardless of our political party or our immigration status. Every resident of the U.S. is entitled to the protections enshrined by the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution.
  • The legal justification provided by DHS in its SORN for its merger of federal databases is a 1999 opinion in which the Department of Justice limited the kinds of restrictions agencies could put on sharing data with law enforcement. It provides for the lawful disclosure of citizenship- or immigration-related information, but it does not grant the Social Security Administration the authority to disclose information without adhering to the requirements of the Privacy Act. 
  • The repurposing of data from different agencies is also dangerous because different people’s records may be incorrectly linked together because of a name misspelling or even a failure to update a name change.
  • DHS/ICIS has implemented additional changes to normal practices as part of its consolidation. Until recently there was no way to deactivate a person’s Social Security number and prevent them from receiving benefits unless there was documentation of their death. Under SAVE, DHS now uses a special indicator code to flag what it considers questionable data or special circumstances concerning an application for an SSN. This allows DHS, without any form of review, to terminate someone’s Social Security benefit. In one case earlier this year when the Social Security Administration under DOGE accidentally declared an 82-year-old man dead (see https://www.livenowfox.com/news/seattle-man-social-security-error), he lost his Social Security benefits, Medicare coverage, and even access to his bank fund. Since in the system being implemented by DHS there will be challenges in matching up names across various databases, the risk of accidental terminations of benefits is heightened.
  • In 2023, a lawyer from the Social Security Administration wrote to the Fair Elections Center that “while SSA records provide an indication of citizenship, they do not provide definitive information on U.S. citizenship,” so it is very concerning that SSA data can now be used to eliminate Americans from voter rolls without further verification.
  • Until now, undocumented Immigrants who lawfully paid federal taxes on their earnings using an Individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) were promised that their personal information would remain confidential. DHS access to the IRS database completely undermines this protection, making it much less likely that they will file. This reduces government revenue and will result in increased taxes for the rest of us.
  • We are seeing more frequent and broader hacking operations affecting federal agencies by foreign states and other actors (see https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-charges-12-chinese-contract-hackers-and-law-enforcement-officers-global and https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/us-treasurys-workstations-hacked-cyberattack-by-china-afp-reports-2024-12-30/ and https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/The-OPM-Data-Breach-How-the-Government-Jeopardized-Our-National-Security-for-More-than-a-Generation.pdf). By combining databases as DHS/USCIS is doing, hundreds of millions of Americans’ data may be compromised by hackers.
  • For all of these reasons, I ask DHS/USCIS to terminate the changes to the SAVE program.

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Posted by sallijane

Down to the “deadline”

April 19, 2024

Senate may vote Friday on expansion of FISA Section 702 warrantless surveillance – and maybe also a warrant requirement

FISA Section 702 expires Friday unless it’s reauthorized. This “deadline” doesn’t really matter in terms of national security: the FISA Court has already approved extending existing certifications for another year. But, intelligence agencies and surveillance hawks are trying to use it to strongarm the Senate into passing an expansion of warrantless surveillance that’s so big that Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and civil liberties groups describe as “terrifying.”

Even supporters of the “Everybody Is a Spy bill” like Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) admit this huge expansion is poorly drafted, but he — like the intelligence agencies, and leadership in both parties — thinks the Senate should pass it anyhow. Others disagree including Sen. Cramer (R-ND):

“We can’t have a timeline put to your head like a gun and say, ‘pass a mediocre bill because you’ve got to do it quickly,’ especially given the fact that it’s already sought and received from the court itself a one-year reprieve.”

But today, the Senate voted 67-32 to sent the terrifying, poorly-drafted bill to the floor, which means that a vote could happen on Friday.

Then again, there are also two amendments with strong support: one from Sen. Wyden to roll back the terrifying poorly-drafted expansion the House passed, and another from Sen. Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Cramer to introduce a warrant requirement that’s somewhat narrower than the warrant requirement that almost passed the House last week. Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News reported this afternoon that leadership wants to get it wrapped up by tomorrow, but are concerned is that some these amendments could actually pass — and if it seems like that might happen, they’d rather run out the clock than risk a vote.

So we’ll see what happens. If the Senate doesn’t vote Friday, it’s possible that they’ll vote Saturday or next week. If they do vote Friday and pass an amendment, then it goes back to the House, who might try to squeeze in a vote on Friday night but given how dysfunctional things are that might also be challenging.

If you haven’t already contacted your Senators, now’s a great time! If you have, please consider following up with them. You can either use EFF’s form, call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the Senate directory to look up your legislators’ contact info. Here’s a short script:

“Please OPPOSE the terrifying, poorly-drafted Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), H.R.7888, which would dramatically expand the government’s warrantless surveillance powers. Instead, REMOVE the expansino of FISA 702 powers the House added, and SUPPORT a warrant requirement. Don’t be fooled by the apparent April 19 “deadline”; the FISA Court has already approved a one-year renewal.”

#FISA #Surveillance #privacy

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Senate to vote on RISAA, the “Everyone Is A Spy” expansion of FISA Section 702 warrantless surveillance

April 17, 2024

UPDATE: EFF’s Tell the U.S. Senate: STOP RISAA, the FISA Mass Surveillance Expansion makes it easy to contact your Senators.

The Senate is likely to vote Wednesday on RISAA, the FISA Section 702 reauthorization bill the House passed last week.  The more people have looked at RISAA the worse it looks — Privacy Advocates Ramp Up Effort to Stop Spying Expansion and the letter from a colaition of 75+ privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights groups have details.

Senator Ron Wyden says RISAA “represents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.”  One especially big problem with this House bill is what privacy organizations call the “Everyone Is A Spy” provision, which gives the government unchecked authority to order millions of Americans to spy on behalf of the government – which would also help Trump crack down on the media

Wyden and Senator Mike Lee are leading a bipartisan coalition of privacy advocates trying to stop the Senate from passing the House bill — see the end of the article for a video of Sen. Wyden’s powerful speech. So now’s a great time to contact the Senate. You can either use EFF’s form, call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the Senate directory to look up your legislators’ contact info. Here’s a short script:

“Please OPPOSE the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), H.R.7888, which would dramatically expand the government’s warrantless surveillance powers – and any other FISA Section 702 reauthorization including the “Everyone Is A Spy” provision that gives the government unchecked authority to order millions of Americans to spy on behalf of the government.”

Here’s a video of Sen Wyden’s speech — or if you prefer text, here’s the transcript

#surveillance #privacy #FISA

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House votes to extend and expand Section 702 surveillance powers — without adding a warrant requirement

April 12, 2024

After a lot of maneuvering, the House voted 273–147 today to reauthorize FISA Section 702 for another two years. The vote on an amendment to add a warrant requirement was 212-212, so it didn’t pass. Unfortunately, two other amendments did pass, both expanding the scope of warrantless wiretapping. Politicians of both parties who had supported a warrant requirement in the past voted against it this time — including former Speaker Pelosi and current Speaker Johnson.

Dell Cameron’s House Votes to Extend—and Expand—a Major US Spy Program on Wired and Center for Democracy and Technology’s U.S. House Vote Narrowly Allows Rampant Abuses of Warrantless Spying Authority to Continue have details. Cameron notes

“The House bill also dramatically expands the statutory definition for communication service providers, something FISA experts, including Marc Zwillinger—one of the few people to advise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)—have publicly warned against.

“Anti-reformers not only are refusing common-sense reforms to FISA, they’re pushing for a major expansion of warrantless spying on Americans,” US senator Ron Wyden tells WIRED. “Their amendment would force your cable guy to be a government spy and asNsist in monitoring Americans’ communications without a warrant.””

Next week, the bill moves to the Senate. The deadline for reauthorization is April 19th … but the FISA Court has already extended certifications for another year, so it’s not actually a hard deadline. Stay tuned for more!

#FISA #Section702 #surveillance

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A FISA vote coming this week – UPDATED

April 8, 2024

UPDATE: On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee decided what amendments will be voted on – including a new disastrously bad amendment. So I’ve updated the post. There’s a new script at the bottom — if you’ve already contacted Congress, thanks, and please do so again. If you haven’t now would be a very good time to!

The clock is ticking: FISA Section 702’s authority for warrantless surveillance expires on April 19 it’s reauthorized. For the last few months, a bipartisan coalition of reformers have been focusing on two key improvements: adding a warrant requirement, and preventing intelligence agencies from end-running around the warrant requirement by buying data from data brokers. But the intelligence agencies, and surveillance hawks in both parties, are trying to get FISA reauthorized without significant reforms — and even expanad surveillance. Originally there was supposed to be a vote in December; it got postponed until February, and then postponed again.

Now, the plan is to vote in the House this week. The bill going to the floor doesn’t have any signifciant reforms (it actually weakens) oversight, but there will be a vote on an amendment to add a warrant requirement. Unfortunately there will also be a vote on an amendment that would significantly expand FISA’s scope; Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: A Planned Amendment to This Week’s Vote Would Be the Largest Expansion of FISA in Over 15 Years has the details

Which means that RIGHT NOW is a great time to contact your Representative. You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directories to look up your legislators’ contact info. Here’s a short script:

“Stop the FBI from expanding warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans. OPPOSE the FISA amendment from Reps. Turner and Himes, which would be the largest expansion of FISA since Section 702 was created in 2008. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers.”

Things are likely to continue to change, so check back frequently! Dell Cameron of Wired is doing frequent updates in The Future of America’s Biggest Spy Program Is Being Decided Right Now.

#FISA #privacy #surveillance #Section702

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Oppose extending FISA in the NDAA!

December 12, 2023

Last night, House Republican leadership decided not to go ahead with votes on the two FISA reauthorization bills. Instead, they’re now planning to attach an extension to the must-pass NDAA — effectively extending FISA until 2025.* See this letter from dozens of civil rights and racial justice groups opposing extending FISA in the NDAA for why that’s a bad idea.

Fortunately, there’s enough opposition to FISA extension in both parties that there’s still a chance to stop it. Here’s how you can help.

  • Contact your Senators TODAY and with a simple ask: “DO NOT put 702 in the NDAA.”
  • Once you’ve done that, contact your representative with the same ask: “DO NOT put 702 in the NDAA.”

You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the Senate and House directories to look up your legislators’ contact info.

#FISA #Section702 #surveillance

* technically, the extension is for four months, until April 2024. But the FISA court approves cerfifications for a year, so any surveillance approved in early 2024 will continue until 2025.

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Stop the surveillance power grab. Tell Congress to OPPOSE HPSCI’s Horrific Surveillance Bill and SUPPORT real reforms!

December 10, 2023

FISA Section 702’s authority for warrantless surveillance expires at the end of the year unless it’s reauthorized.  With Congress leaving DC on December 15, there’s a lot of action this week — including competing Section 702 surveillance bills on collision path in the House, two bills in the Senate as well, and perhaps an attempt to add as short-term extension to the most-path NDAA bill. So now’s a critical time to contact Congress!

Both bills are scheduled for a floor vote this week, so now’s a crucial time to contact Congress! Several organizations have pages that make it easy to contact your legislators, along with talking points

Or if you’d rather contact legislators yourself …

The House of Representatives’ switchboard is at 202-225-3121; if you’re not sure who your representative is you can look them up here.

“Please OPPOSE H.R. 6611, the “FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act” (FRRA) and any attempt to include a short-term extension of Section 702 in the NDAA. Please SUPPORT H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act (PLEWSA). FRRA not only fails to reform FISA, it actually broadens mass surveillance authorities. We’ve seen too many examples of unchecked, warrantless surveillance of Americans. FISA Section 702 must not be reauthorized without significant reforms – and PLEWSA has support from legislators in both parties.”

And the Senate switchboard is at 202-224-3121.

“Please OPPOSE any attempt to include a short-term extension of FISA Section 702 in the NDAA, and please OPPOSE S.3351 – FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023. Instead, please SUPPRT S. 3234, the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023, and SUPPORT H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act (PLEWSA). FRRA not only fails to reform FISA, it actually broadens mass surveillance authorities. We’ve seen too many examples of unchecked, warrantless surveillance of Americans. FISA Section 702 must not be reauthorized without significant reforms – and GSRA and PLEWSA has support from legislators in both parties.”

More info:

#FISA #Section702 @privacy

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Get FISA Right has entered the fediverse!

November 8, 2023

We’re heading into a busy time for FISA activism. FISA Section 702 expires in December 2023 unless Congress re-authorizes it, and the just-introduced bi-partisan Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA) combines significant FISA reforms with other important protections.

And conveniently enough, WordPress now makes it easy to connect blogs to the fediverse, an decentralized ecosystem social networks. If you’ve got a Mastodon account, you should be able to follow us at @getfisaright@getfisaright.net

A lot of people in the fediverse are passionate and knowledgable about privacy and civil liberties … and because FISA affects “non-US persons” as well as Americans, it’s something that’s likely to have broad interest. Of course, as Privacy activism on Mastodon and in the fediverse discusses, there are also some barriers to activism in the fediverse, so we’ll see how well it works out … but @rt4@campaign.openworlds.info @eff and other civil liberties groups are already there, so it’s worth a try!

#FISA #GSRA

A checkmark, followed by the words Get FISA Right has entered the fediverse

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A Note from Restore the Fourth

December 11, 2022

Recently, I was pleased to see an e-mail from Restore the Fourth show up in my in-box. They have been active in protecting us from unreasonable search and seizure (text of the amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ”)

Here’s what they say in the new e-mail:

We’re working on our New Year’s resolutions for protecting Fourth Amendment rights.

In 2023, lovers of freedom have a major opportunity. One of the key laws authorizing mass surveillance, Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, is set to expire. If Congress does not act, the NSA will be deprived of statutory authority for surveillance of “US-to-foreign” communications. Its vast dragnet “incidentally” captures the communications of millions of Americans without a warrant. Then, the FBI accesses that database without a warrant, for domestic law enforcement purposes, performing over 3 million searches each year. These “backdoor searches” circumvent the Fourth Amendment and permit mass domestic surveillance.

We can stop this—but we need your help.

Founded after the Snowden revelations of 2013, Restore the Fourth has already helped secure the sunset of another surveillance law, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, in 2020. The last time Section 702 was up for debate, we secured some transparency reforms. Now, with greater bipartisan support for surveillance reform, we can go further. It’s time FISA went back to authorizing surveillance on an individual, not a mass, basis. It’s time the FBI got a warrant for searches on Americans—and it’s time for the NSA and FBI to come clean, to Congress and the public, about the real scale of what they’re doing. You deserve privacy in your communications and your browsing, instead of a government agent looking over your shoulder at everything you do.

We’ll be talking with folks from Restore the Fourth to see how folks can help—they are looking for both donations and volunteers, so check back here and on their own site. These issues never completely go away; we win some battles, but so do those who would ignore our rights. As the saying goes, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, so please join us and Restore the Fourth and keep watching, keep speaking out, and keep sharing information with your friends and colleagues.

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