After the deadline expired at midnight, the US Senate voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key surveillance lawafter divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search Americans' data came close to forcing the rule's expiration.
The legislation, which passed 60-34 and received bipartisan support, will extend the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for two years. The text will now pass into the hands of the president, Joe Biden, who must sign it to turn it into law. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the president will sanction him immediately.
U.S. officials have noted that the surveillance tool, which was first authorized in 2008 and has been renovated several times Since then, it has been crucial in thwarting terrorist attacks, cyber incursions and foreign espionage, as well as generating intelligence information that the country has relied on for specific operations, such as the assassination of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri in 2022.
The proposal would renew the program, which allows the U.S. government to collect, without the need for a court order, the communications of non-U.S. persons outside the country to gather foreign intelligence information. The reauthorization faced a long road full of ups and downs until its final approval, after months of confrontations between privacy defenders and supporters of national security caused the official deadline to expire.
Although the spy program was technically set to expire at midnight, the Biden administration said it expected its intelligence-gathering authority to remain operational for at least another year, thanks to a ruling issued earlier this month by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which receives surveillance requests.
Officials had said, however, that judicial approval should not replace that of Congress, especially because media companies they could stop cooperating with the government if the initiative was not renewed.
Before the law expired, U.S. authorities were already in trouble after two of the country's largest communications providers said they would stop complying with the surveillance program's orders, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Attorney General Merrick Garland praised the re-approval of the plan and reiterated that it is an “indispensable” tool for the Department of Justice.
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