Latest spy power reauthorization bill leaves critics unimpressed
Latest spy power reauthorization bill leaves critics unimpressed
https://cyberscoop.com/section-702-fisa-reauthorization-bill-leaves-critics-unimpressed/
Publish Date: 2026-04-24 16:52:00
Source Domain: cyberscoop.com
The latest attempt to re-up a controversial expiring surveillance law has failed to placate vocal critics on both the left and right of the political spectrum.
Two House votes failed last week to extend the spying powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for 18 months without changes, leading to Congress instead passing a 10-day reauthorization. GOP leaders have been scrambling to find a bill they can pass since with the April 30 deadline approaching.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., introduced a bill Thursday to extend it for three years, with a section stating that government officials can’t use Section 702 to target Americans. Under Section 702, U.S. spies and law enforcement agencies can warrantlessly search electronic communications of foreign targets. But those targets are sometimes communicating with U.S. persons, and officials can search the communications database using their personal information.
But critics of the latest Johnson proposal say the language about targeting Americans is window dressing.
“On the whole, it is an empty-calories bill and nothing more that does not engage in reform,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the center’s security and surveillance project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a call with reporters Friday.
Civil liberties groups have long called for a warrant requirement for U.S. person-based searches.
“It doesn’t require a warrant or any kind of court process for U.S. person searches,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s political advocacy division. “The main reform just restates existing law… . It’s also completely irrelevant to the issue at hand, because backdoor searches have never been the product of the government intentionally targeting U.S. persons under 702. The problem is that they are incidentally collecting U.S. person communications and searching the…
