WASHINGTON — A law that would renew a domestic surveillance program in the United States was blocked Wednesday by conservatives, leaving its passage in doubt as the deadline approaches.
The legislative impasse occurred after former President Donald Trump warned about manipulation to monitor individuals and politicians opposed to the plans of the extreme left in the United States, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has made clear its tendency to persecute those conservatives as a priority.
The legislative opposition comes months after a similar process to reform and reauthorize the surveillance program collapsed before even reaching the House of Representatives.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the program is “critically important” but has struggled to find a path forward at the center of bipartisan disputes for years.
The legislation would revamp the surveillance program with a series of reforms to satisfy critics who complained of violations of civil and individual liberties.
However, Republicans complained that those changes are not compelling enough and questioned whether the bill supported by the Biden administration would have enough votes to advance.
The most controversial topic
At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows the US government to collect the communications of non-US Americans located outside the country for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence without have a court order. The measure will expire on April 19 if Congress does not act.
U.S. officials have said the tool, first authorized in 2008 and renewed several times since, is crucial for thwarting terrorist attacks, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage, and has also generated information that has been used by the United States to carry out specific operations.
But the efforts have run into fierce bipartisan opposition, with Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden, a long-time champion of civil liberties, aligning themselves with Republican supporters of Trump, who said in a post on Truth Social that Section 702 was used to spy on his presidential campaign.
“Let’s kill the FISA,” he wrote, using only capital letters. “It was illegally used against me and many others. “He spied on my campaign.”
Although the program will technically expire on April 19, the Biden administration says it expects its intelligence-gathering authority to remain operational for another year, thanks to an earlier opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees surveillance applications.
Source: With information from AP.
