WASHINGTON — The Senate voted to reauthorize a powerful surveillance tool the U.S. government describes as critical to combating terrorism, after defeating efforts by civil liberties advocates on the left and right to rein it in. The vote of 60-34 sends the bill to President Joe Biden, who has championed it. The legislation extends Section […]
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has less than 24 hours to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) warrantless surveillance program before it expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday, and he has a tough path ahead to meet the deadline. Schumer needs to get around a coalition of Republican and Democratic senators who want to […]
Hard-line conservatives are turning up the heat on their GOP colleagues who voted Friday to kill a proposed warrant requirement for domestic communications caught up in foreign surveillance operations. That provision — offered as an amendment to a larger bill renewing a key section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — went down on the […]
WASHINGTON — The House voted to renew a powerful surveillance program on Friday, two days after a band of 19 conservative privacy hawks revolted against Republican leadership and blocked the legislation on the floor when their demands were not met. The vote was 273-147 and was overwhelmingly bipartisan, with both Republicans and Democrats voting in […]
Congress spent the past week in a fractious debate over a major government surveillance program that gives US authorities the ability to monitor vast swaths of emails, text messages and phone calls without a warrant. In a vote on Friday, lawmakers ultimately decided to keep that warrantless surveillance intact and passed a two-year reauthorization of […]
The House is one step closer on Friday to reauthorizing a key U.S. spy program considered crucial to national security. After hard-line Republicans dealt a blow to Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday by tanking a routine procedural vote on the bill, the House passed the rule on Friday morning — teeing up debate, consideration of […]
Former President Donald Trump is urging House Republicans to kill a surveillance reauthorization bill ahead of a key procedural vote on Wednesday, adding to headaches for GOP leaders who have struggled to build support for the legislation as it faces pushback from conservative hardliners. “KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS,” […]
Editor’s note: This article is part of a Dispatch debate series. Kevin Carroll made the case for reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702. This week, the House of Representatives is set to vote on whether to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which will expire on April 19 unless renewed by Congress. This controversial law is […]