Several dozen conservatives said Tuesday they won’t support a House bill to extend the government’s chief foreign intelligence snooping program, threatening the bill’s chances when it reaches the floor later this week.
The House Freedom Caucus’s stance, combined with opposition from the left wing of the Democratic Party, could threaten GOP leaders’ hopes of powering through a renewal of the snooping powers, which allow the government to collect communications concerning foreign intelligence targets.
Congress is racing a Jan. 19 deadline to extend the powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and House leaders have planned a vote for Thursday.
“The House Freedom Caucus is opposed to the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 because it allows the government to collect and search Americans’ communications without a warrant,” the conservatives said in a statement announcing their opposition.
The debate is over how the government can collect and use information it gathers under Section 702.
Under current law and practice the government is supposed to target foreigners overseas, collecting their communications. But Americans’ communications — even those in the U.S. — can be snared if they are part of conversations that the targets are having.
The bill GOP leaders are pushing would require a warrant to access information about Americans, but only after a criminal investigation unrelated to national security is established.
Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said that’s not much of a change from the current law, which her organization opposes.
“At a practical level, what they are trying to do is to pretend the bill has a robust warrant requirement. The reality is that warrant requirement as written will rarely apply,” she said.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat leading opposition from the left, said he fears Americans will have their information accessed even before an investigation is established, getting around the warrant requirement.
“So, in 99 percent of the cases, you can use this information about an American citizen … you can use this information in domestic criminal inquiry,” he said during a hearing Tuesday. “This legislation does not include meaningful reform.”
The liberal-conservative coalition is backing an amendment by Rep. Justine Amash, Michigan Republican, that would add more restrictions on the intelligence community in order to use Section 702. It would require a warrant before intelligence officials search data of U.S. persons collected under the law.
Mr. Amash’s amendment would also keep a shorter leach on Section 702, extending it for four years. The House GOP leaders’ bill would be a six-year extension.
Mr. Amash’s amendment would also restrict so-called “abouts” collection, where someone’s communications can be snared if they mention the target, even if they aren’t in communication with the target. That could mean communications between two Americans could be collected, civil libertarians say.
The GOP leaders’ bill, by contrast, would allow “abouts” collection, but only after the intelligence community presented a new strategy for trying to limit its scope.
House intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes, California Republican, said the bill GOP leaders are offering is a middle ground between what the civil liberties groups want and what the intelligence community wants.
He dismissed concerns about criminal prosecutions of Americans.
“I don’t know of any cases…where American citizens had been prosecuted,” he said, noting he worries about abuse at the Justice Department and FBI, but not under Section 702.
“I’m not aware of anything that the DOJ and FBI have demanded that we put into this bill,” he said.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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