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!
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