FBI, CIA chiefs urge GOP lawmakers to reauthorize surveillance law without changes

FBI Director Kash Patel and CIA Director John Ratcliffe called on Senate Republican lawmakers Wednesday not to let a key provision of federal surveillance law expire next month, as they consider whether to include reforms to protect Americans from past abuses.

Republicans who listened to Mr. Patel and Mr. Ratcliffe seemed concerned about how much time they would have to complete reforms.

“We’re getting close to the deadline here, and I don’t think it’s probably time to make reforms that might be acceptable, that might work,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin. “I think John Ratcliffe and Kash Patel have done a really good job of explaining why this needs to be reauthorized now. I suspect the White House would be all for reforms, but there’s just not enough time.”

Sen. Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, said lawmakers will “consider what reforms, if any, will be included.”

“But it’s an incredibly valuable tool to keep our country safe,” he said. “The concerns many of us have are simply about the abuse of this product, as [surveillance of former Trump campaign aide] Carter Page and so on in the past, but I trust Director Ratcliffe and Director Patel.

Section 702 of FISA allows U.S. spy agencies to intercept the communications of foreigners abroad, but Americans can be caught in surveillance traps when communicating with foreigners.

This section of the law expires every two years and must be revised and reauthorized by Congress. The current version will expire on April 20.

Critics say the spying tool threatens constitutional rights when the FBI or U.S. intelligence officials review the data without a warrant. The FBI and US intelligence agencies also searched the collected data for information about Americans.

Lawmakers from both parties have fought to reform Section 702 every two years, but often face resistance from members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, who say a “clean” reauthorization is necessary to protect national security.

Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, is a leading supporter of changing Section 702. He has proposed legislation with Mr. Daines and Democratic Senator Cory A. Booker of New Jersey and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon to do so.

“I spoke to [Mr. Patel]including today, [about bills] it requires more time,” Mr Lee said.

“My biggest concern is requests made specifically to a person known to the United States,” Mr. Lee said. “There should be some level of protection given past abuse and future potential. I would like to see it as a warrant requirement. They are right to point out that we need the 702 and they are right to point out that these things are obtained legally.”

Mr. Lee said he was concerned that an American generally has no way of knowing that his or her communications may have been accidentally collected during an investigation into a foreign target. He wants backup.

Wrangling enough lawmakers to support reauthorizing Section 702 of the law without any changes is expected to be an uphill climb. Lawmakers from both parties list past FISA abuses, including:

• Between 2017 and 2018, the FISA Court reported thousands of inappropriate requests involving U.S. persons, including a group of more than 70,000 people with access to FBI facilities, victims of crimes, and people who had only submitted information to the FBI.

• In December 2017 alone, more than 6,800 inappropriate requests were executed in a single day.

• Between 2020 and 2021, more than 278,000 violations occurred, involving warrantless searches of George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protesters, January 6 Capitol rioters without proper justification, and 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign.

• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this report.