The president’s signature comes after the bill’s passage through the Senate in a late-night vote.
President Joe Biden has signed legislation that reauthorizes a controversial U.S. surveillance law that faced criticism over concerns that the program would be used to comb through Americans’ personal data.
The White House announced on April 20 that President Biden had signed H.R. 7888, or the “Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act,” into law, extending and modifying Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The Senate approved the bill in a 60–34 vote that concluded shortly after midnight Friday, prompting national security adviser Jake Sullivan to issue a statement praising its passage, calling FISA “one of the United States’ most vital intelligence tools,” and giving assurance that the president would sign it “swiftly.”
The vote came after lingering disagreements over the controversial surveillance program had Senate leadership scrambling to strike a deal on the rules of debate and amendments.
Lawmakers took votes on a series of amendments that would strengthen civil liberty protections.
However, none of these—including an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to require a warrant to search Americans’ Section 702 data and another by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to prohibit federal law enforcement from purchasing Americans’ data from third-party brokers—were passed by the Senate.
That’s in part because senators wanted to ensure the authority didn’t lapse, as the vote began less than four hours before it was due to expire.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged other lawmakers at the start of the vote series to oppose all amendments, as they would render Congress unable to reauthorize the program before it expires, as any amendments would need to be authorized by a vote of the House.
Mr. Paul, a leading proponent of making changes to the program, shot back, “We’ve had five years to do this,” accusing supporters of Section 702 of waiting until the eleventh hour to reauthorize the program in order to force its passage unamended.
By Samantha Flom and Joseph Lord
