The Senate is working to advance a three-year bill to extend a key spy powers tool, with text circulating among members ahead of an expiration date for the authority next week.
The bill has provisions aimed at appeasing some privacy concerns, including penalties, reviews and restricting the information obtained from being used in criminal prosecutions of Americans, according to a section-by-section breakdown of the text seen by Bloomberg Government. Congress temporarily extended the government surveillance authorization, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, through June 12 after lawmakers previously failed to reach an agreement for a longer-term reauthorization.
The legislation, which builds off the House bill and hasn’t been publicly released, is now circulating among senators and it’s likely there will be a procedural vote on the measure on Thursday, according to a senior congressional aide. The legislation would narrow the definition of an Electronic Communications Service Provider (ECSP), which describes who is required to turn over data to the US government, after concerns that it was too broad.
The measure would also include a three-year prohibition on the Federal Reserve issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency, which is a move aimed at appeasing House conservatives who have repeatedly called for a permanent ban.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had signed off on the bill, according to the aide. The senators didn’t immediately return requests for comment. FISA falls within the jurisdiction of both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees, so Grassley and Cotton worked jointly to draft the bill and negotiate the reforms, according to another source familiar with the process.
Section 702 allows US intelligence agencies to collect the communications of foreigners overseas. It’s become a contentious issue, with conservative and liberal opponents raising concerns that it allows warrantless surveillance of Americans in contact with foreigners.
It’s unclear whether the provisions included in the bill will be enough to satisfy privacy hawks. The only requirement on warrants, which was included in the House bill, says officials would need a probable cause warrant to target anything other than a non-US person overseas, according to the aide.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said after Senate Republicans’ closed-door caucus lunch that they were told the bill is out. The agreement is circulating just after President Donald Trump announced that housing official Bill Pulte will serve as acting director of national intelligence, complicating the path forward for FISA. Several Democrats, including Warner, raised concerns about his appointment on Tuesday.