Two competing bills to reauthorize America's FISA Section 702 spying powers advanced in the House of Representatives committees this week, setting up Congress for a battle over warrantless surveillance before the law lapses in the New Year.
At stake is the ability of US law enforcement to surveil the communications of American citizens and resident aliens without a warrant.
Naturally, law enforcement is unwilling to give up these powers.
The bipartisan bill reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for three years with reforms including requiring all US intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before conducting a US person query.
Section 702 is supposed to be used by the Feds to scan electronic communications of foreigners who are outside of the US to prevent terrorist attacks or other serious threats to national security.
If these foreigners communicate with or about people inside the US, then those emails, phone calls and texts can also be intercepted.
Plus, it's been blatantly abused by the FBI to spy on American protesters and an unnamed US senator, among other elected officials.
Section 702 will expire at the end of the year unless it's renewed by US lawmakers.
A day after the Judiciary Committee advanced its proposal, on Thursday the House Intelligence Committee unanimously passed the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023.
This proposal also renews Section 702 - but notably without a strict warrant requirement, similar to another bill to reauthorize Section 702 in the US Senate.
US Representative Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intel Committee, blasted the rival Judiciary Committee bill in his opening remarks.
Both bills are expected to be voted on by the full House of Representatives as early as next week.
While we'd assume that the FBI prefers the House Intelligence Committee's plan to reform Section 702 of the two options approaching a House floor vote, civil liberties, and digital privacy advocates aren't fans.
CDT applauded the House Judiciary Committee vote to advance HR 6570.
The ACLU also supports the Judiciary Committee's proposal.
For those keeping a running tally: There's also the much broader Government Surveillance Reform Act that seeks to reform Section 702 introduced in both the House and the Senate last month, although that proposal - which also includes a warrant requirement for US persons queries - is still awaiting committee votes in both chambers.
This Cyber News was published on go.theregister.com. Publication date: Fri, 08 Dec 2023 23:43:07 +0000