Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, will be holding classified briefings for House Republicans on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act throughout the rest of July as members of both parties grow angry with the intelligence community’s use of the law.
There will be nine classified briefings that will begin on July 18 and continue until July 28, according to a memo obtained by the Washington Examiner. The goal of the briefings is to present “an opportunity to hear classified examples of how the authority is used, and have questions answered directly by intelligence personnel who have worked with the tool,” the memo reads.
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The briefings come as Congress must vote to reauthorize the program before its deadline at the end of the year. But key members of both parties, including Turner and the ranking member of House Intel, have said they need to see major reforms before voting to reauthorize Section 702.
“Although FISA is an important national security tool for intelligence gathering to keep our nation safe, Section 702 should not be reauthorized without substantial and meaningful reforms to address FBI abuses of the FISA process,” Turner said in a statement. “The House Intelligence Committee is actively working with the Intelligence Community and a bipartisan group to propose and pass these much-needed reforms.”
The 702 portion of FISA is “a key provision” that "permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the United States,” according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
But a FISA court opinion declassified by ODNI earlier this year showed the FBI had committed 278,000 FISA violations in recent years.
The objection to reauthorizing Section 702 crosses party lines, with members wanting to see reforms at the FBI before they decide to reauthorize.
"The FBI has not proven itself capable of wielding this tool with proper protection of Americans’ civil liberties. Agents have routinely and unconstitutionally surveilled American citizens, and Director Wray’s testimony on Capitol Hill last week did nothing to dissuade House Republicans from that position," said Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA). "We will not reauthorize FISA 702 unless the Bureau proves to Congress that it has implemented major reforms and establishes a transparent set of checks and balances to ensure that American citizens aren’t being unconstitutionally surveilled by the institutions designed to protect them.”
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Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking member on House Intel, said last month that everyone understands that FISA 702 must be reauthorized but that it also must come with reforms.
The most important of those reforms would be limiting the use of query terms for U.S. citizens within FISA Section 702 data collected by the National Security Agency, he said.