An intensive drive by right-wing Republicans in Congress to vilify the FBI with charges of political bias has imperiled a program allowing spy agencies to conduct warrantless surveillance on foreign targets, and amplifying demands for stricter limits.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington, April 16, 2023.
“There’s no way we’re going to be for reauthorizing that in its current form — no possible way,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a key ally of Trump’s who is leading a special House investigation into the “weaponization” of government against conservatives. “We’re concerned about surveillance, period.
“This will be a first impression for many of them,” said Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., a supporter of the program who is part of the Intelligence Committee’s six-member working group trying to determine how Congress can restrict the program without hamstringing it. “The thought that 702 and FISA just focused on terrorism — I think that narrative has to be changed. We need to focus on China, we need to focus on Russia, we need to focus on Iran and North Korea.
Justice Department and FBI officials have attempted to defend themselves from lawmakers’ outrage over those revelations, pointing to steps they have taken to restrain the opportunities agents are permitted to examine the communications of Americans collected under Section 702. They credit those changes with reducing the number of such queries from about 3 million in 2021 to about 120,000 last year.
Democratic supporters have been adamant that any reauthorization will have to include significant limitations on how and when agents may comb their databases for information on Americans, in the hopes that those safeguards will allay lawmakers’ long-standing concerns about the potential for abuses. Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, who is a member of the Intelligence Committee’s working group and the weaponization panel, said some members of his party might be persuaded to reauthorize the program with “deep reforms.”
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