Senate returns to FISA debate with lingering questions about Trump support

Senators will return next week to an overdue debate on the limits of the government’s surveillance powers, even as President Donald Trump’s signature on what they may produce is not yet assured.
The Senate had been gearing up to reauthorize and update parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in mid-March before their first abrupt departure from the Capitol at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The Senate had passed a 77-day extension of three expired authorities, but the House never took up that measure. The base bill for Senate floor debate will be a broader House-passed reauthorization and overhaul that represented a compromise among House Democrats, Republicans and the administration, with talks that featured the personal involvement of Attorney General William Barr. In addition to new protections, the FISA bill would revive the authorization for new Section 215 orders that allow for the collection of business and other records of individuals through the FISA court and a roving wiretap provision that permits the government to get orders targeting people who frequently change phone lines or use so-called burner devices to avoid traditional wiretaps on individual lines. It also would reauthorize the “Lone Wolf” provision, which is a power designed to target suspected terrorists who may not be connected to a larger organization. Among the amendments in order is a proposal from Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah that would expand the circumstances under which an amicus curiae must be appointed for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court proceedings to include those involving religious institutions, political figures and other particularly sensitive cases. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont has been Lee’s lead Democratic partner in the effort. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has an amendment in order for a vote that would declare that FISA court provisions cannot be used against U.S. citizens, has been suggesting this week that a Trump veto remains a possibility. “I think they’ll start with the House bill and we’ll have some amendment votes. I think leadership probably presumes they can beat them all, and, I don’t know, they usually do. We’ll see what happens,” Paul told reporters. “But I think it’s an important debate to have, and I will encourage the president to veto it if it still allows Americans to be abused in FISA court.”...MORE