GoKawiilis a policy reporter at The Verge covering surveillance, the Department of Homeland Security, and the tech-right.
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Congress has reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — but only for another 45 days. The extension is meant to give legislators more time to negotiate reforms to the controversial wiretapping bill. If the past few weeks are any indication of how future debates will go, however, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
The House renewed Section 702 with minor reforms on Wednesday evening. The bill didn’t include the hotly debated warrant requirement, but it did feature a provision prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing Central Bank Digital Currencies, which Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) described as a nonstarter.
“Three weeks is more than enough time to negotiate a reform bill,” Thune said on the Senate floor on Thursday. “That is, if members are serious about negotiating.”
That’s the open question. Senators tussled over the length of the extension. Ron Wyden (D-OR) favored a three-week reauthorization, while Tom Cotton (R-AR) called for a 45-day extension, citing an upcoming one-week recess. Section 702, Cotton said, was essential to US Armed Forces’ raid on Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. The Senate ultimately landed on a 45-day extension, which the House upheld Thursday afternoon in a 261-111 vote.
Negotiations over FISA’s future are likely to be fraught. On Wednesday, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) castigated House leadership for not allowing members to debate or vote on amendments to the reauthorization bill and described the past two days of negotiations as “a dumpster fire from a process standpoint.”
“We spent all night waiting around while Republicans fought among themselves,” McGovern said. “We were told nearly at midnight on Monday to go home. We were then told rules would meet at 8AM on Tuesday. We showed up for that meeting only to be told there would be no meeting because Republicans were still busy fighting with each other.”
McGovern pointed out that many of the amendments reforming FISA were in fact introduced by Republicans — but House leadership wouldn’t allow them to be debated.
“These bills are take it or leave it. The leadership dictates every letter, every comma,” he said. “This is no way to run this place. It is no way to run a banana stand. It is pathetic, it is a disgrace, and the Speaker and the Majority ought to be embarrassed by what is going on here. You’re screwing over your own members.”
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