Bipartisan Lawmakers Introduce Bill Mandating Warrants for Surveillance on Americans, with FISA Section 702 Set to Expire
Proposed Government Surveillance Reform Act Prioritizes Privacy: Warrants Required for Domestic Spying Under Controversial FISA Section 702, Alongside Prohibition on Purchasing Data from Brokers, Amid Efforts to Reauthorize Before Year-End Expiration.
- A bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced a bill, known as the Government Surveillance Reform Act, which will require the intelligence community to secure a warrant before accessing information about American citizens, even if the information was collected during surveillance of foreigners abroad.
- The proposed legislation aims to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is set to expire at the end of the year if it's not reauthorized. The bill would also forbid the government from purchasing data from brokers, reducing another means of access to Americans' digital information.
- The proponents of the bill include representatives across the aisle who rarely agree on other issues but are united over privacy concerns. Senator Ron Wyden, democratic senator from Oregon, emphasized the founders' stance that government agencies should secure a warrant before reading Americans' private communications.
- The new legislation has faced resistance from the White House and the intelligence community, arguing that the requirement for a warrant is fundamentally impractical and could disrupt the ability to act on information in real time. However, the advocates of the bill counter that such protections are necessary to prevent abuses of surveillance powers.
- The bill would reauthorize Section 702 for four more years with these reforms in place. If passed, new measures would ensure foreigners are not targeted as a pretext for spying on U.S. citizens and would demand warrants for the surveillance of Americans' location data, web browsing history, web search entries, and communications with AI assistants.
The Register 