There was a brief hiccup in the controversial US spy program

The Senate Appropriate Resolution of the 2008 White House Investigations into the Failure of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

WASHINGTON — After its midnight deadline, the Senate voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse.

The legislation approved 60-34 with bipartisan support would extend for two years the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law. Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, said Biden will sign the bill.

The Senate Voting began 15 minutes before the deadline to reauthorize the FISA law, which is due to end at midnight. “All day long, we persisted and we persisted in trying to reach a breakthrough and in the end, we have succeeded.”

In addition to disrupting attacks and producing intelligence that the U.S. has depended on for specific operations, the tool has also been used to do so many times since 2008, according to the officials.

“If you miss a crucial piece of intelligence, you’ll be unable to do your job, and people will be in harm’s way,” said Marco Rubio, top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. “You may miss a plot to harm the country here, domestically, or somewhere else. So in this particular case, there’s real-life implications.”

The Biden administration had said it expected authority to gather intelligence to remain in place for at least another year because of an opinion earlier this month from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Still, officials had said that court approval shouldn’t be a substitute for congressional authorization, especially since communications companies could cease cooperation with the government if the program is allowed to lapse.

“In the event of a lapse,” Cornyn continued, “tonight at midnight, some communication service providers will stop cooperating with the United States government. That’s exactly what happened in 2008 when the predecessor of 702, called the Protect America Act, lapsed.”

The Senate was given classified briefings this week, but progressive and conservative lawmakers who wanted more changes to be made were unable to accept the House version of the bill.

The lawmakers wanted to get votes on amendments that would address the civil liberty loopholes in the bill. In the end, Schumer was able to cut a deal that would allow critics to receive floor votes on their amendments in exchange for speeding up the process for passage.

One of the major changes detractors had proposed centered around restricting the FBI’s access to information about Americans through the program. When Americans are in contact with targets in other countries, the tool also gathers their communications. Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber, had been pushing a proposal that would require U.S. officials to get a warrant before accessing American communications.

The government should have to get permission from a judge to spy on Americans if they want to, just as our forefathers intended, according to Durbin.

In the past year, U.S. officials have revealed a series of abuses and mistakes by FBI analysts in improperly querying the intelligence repository for information about Americans or others in the U.S., including a member of Congress and participants in the racial justice protests of 2020 and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

But members on both the House and Senate intelligence committees as well as the Justice Department warned requiring a warrant would severely handicap officials from quickly responding to imminent national security threats.

“I think it’s a risk that we can’t afford to take because of the many challenges that we face around the world,” Warner said.

The Second Amendment ‘Not For Sale’ Sentence – Sens. Susan Collins, Rep. Kamlin Collins, and Colleagues congratulated for their 9000th Roll Call Votes

The senator said that the extension of Section 702 certification doesn’t mean that the program can continue.

Warner said that “sixty percent” of the president’s daily brief comes from material collected through the surveillance program.

Less than three hours before Section 702’s expiration, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a version of the Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act as an amendment to the reauthorization bill. It failed 31- 61. Paul was not happy with the way other senators talked about it being too late to amend the bill.

Paul said the House was still here. They are going to be voting tomorrow. We need to send the good amendments to the House tomorrow.

With two hours to go before Section 702’s expiration, the so-called act of unilateral disarmament in the face of the Chinese Communist Party, the senators then took a five-minute interlude to congratulate Susan Collins for making her 9000th roll call vote. The senior-most appropriator has always shown her dedication by making sure she shows up to vote on time.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced an amendment that would have struck language in the House bill that expanded the definition of “electronic communications service provider.” Anyone with access to equipment can transmit or store wire or electronic communications. The expansion, Wyden has claimed, would force “ordinary Americans and small businesses to conduct secret, warrantless spying.” The Wyden-Hawley amendment failed 34-58, meaning that the next iteration of the FISA surveillance program will be more expansive than before.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) objected to a warrant requirement for Americans’ communications on the basis that many terrorists — like the 2015 San Bernardino shooters or the Boston Marathon bombers — are American. If we suspected them of terrorism, you would not be able to surveil them under this amendment, because none of these were prevented.

Lee introduced an amendment would expand the role amicus curiae briefs play in FISA court proceedings. At this point, with about half an hour until midnight and the official expiration of Section 720, senators were visibly flagging.

The Senate started voting on the bill with 15 minutes to midnight, clearing the 60 vote threshold. As of writing, the Senate still has not officially adjourned.