Civil liberties advocates oppose new foreign surveillance law

The American Civil Liberties Union announced opposition Wednesday to the new House bill to extend the government’s chief foreign intelligence snooping program, saying it doesn’t do enough to protect Americans’ rights and could lead to new opportunities for government overreach.

The bill would extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for four years. Without an extension, the authority to scoop up communications of foreign targets would expire at the end of this month.

But the ACLU said more reforms are needed before the powers are renewed, and warned lawmakers against accepting a bad bill in a deadline deal.

“The last decade has demonstrated time and again that when surveillance laws are negotiated in secret and rushed through Congress with little debate, it often leads to abuse and constitutional violations,” said Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the ACLU.

“Yet House leadership appears poised to repeat past mistakes and quickly push for a vote on this hastily drafted legislation without giving members of Congress or the public time to debate the important privacy interests at stake,” she said.

The bill includes some new limits on the use of Americans’ communications that are snared, but civil liberties advocates said there are too many loopholes left.

The House Rules Committee is slated to debate the bill Wednesday afternoon, setting up a floor vote Thursday. But it’s unclear whether the bill has enough support.

Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, is pushing for public debate on the issue instead of a long-term renewal of the intelligence community’s powers.

“This bill is an eleventh-hour attempt to sneak an unchecked warrantless surveillance program through Congress,” Mr. Wyden said. “This kind of rushed, secretive process is exactly the wrong way to write laws governing important national security programs.”

The issue has become entangled with other year-end business on Capitol Hill, including a new stopgap spending bill, action on the Children’s Health Insurance Program and a new disaster relief bill to pay for recovery from this fall’s hurricanes.

The new House bill allows “abouts” collection, which is when the government scoops up communications that mention a target, even if he or she isn’t the sender or receiver. Abouts collection was halted earlier this year by agreement of the intelligence community and the secret court that oversees FISA law, after they said it was proving difficult to narrowly tailor. The new bill would allow a restart but only after Congress was given a 30-day heads-up.

The number of Americans whose data is scooped up would also have to be reported to Congress.