The Senate on Thursday bolstered legal protections for targets of federal surveillance, but it may not be enough to avoid a veto from President Trump, who is still upset that the law was used to spy on his 2016 campaign.
Lawmakers voted 80-16 to approve a House bill that reauthorizes critical provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
FISA is a 1970s law that enables the federal government to surveil Americans and foreigners, both domestically and abroad, suspected of national security threats.
Three critical authorizations had expired in March after the House and Senate failed to extend them amid fierce debate and the coronavirus pandemic taking up their time.
Before making its way to Mr. Trump’s desk, the bill will make a pit stop in the House because senators voted to amend the legislation. The House will likely tinker with the bill some more and then pass it for the second time.
The fate of the bill once it lands before Mr. Trump is much murkier, however. The president has not said if he would sign the measure and has complained about the House version.
“Many Republican Senators want me to veto the FISA bill until we found out what led to, and happened with, the illegal attempted ‘coup’ of the duly elected President of the United States, and others!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Trump has not said explicitly what he wants in a FISA reform bill but has seethed over the Obama-era FBI using it to surveil former campaign aide Carter Page.
Attorney General William P. Barr has endorsed the House bill, even playing a key role in negotiations to pass compromise legislation. Mr. Barr had initially pushed lawmakers for a simple extension of the expiring FISA provisions promising to take steps internally to reform the law.
The stamp of approval from one of his top deputies may be enough to mollify Mr. Trump’s concerns.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted 77-19 to add language to the House bill that would enable outside legal counsel to scrutinize FBI surveillance requests.
The bipartisan proposal from Sens. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, and Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, was seen as a win for privacy hawks.
Mr. Lee said if his proposal had been enacted in 2016, the FISA would be required to appoint a legal advisor to challenge the FBI’s request to monitor Carter Page.
Senators rejected two other amendments championed by privacy advocates on both sides of the aisle.
But two other amendments were rejected by the Senate.
In a 59-37 vote Wednesday, senators blocked a proposal that would prohibit the government from spying on Americans’ internet browsing and search history without a warrant.
The amendment offered by Sens. Steve Daines, Montana Republican, and Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, narrowly fell short of the 60 vote threshold.
Sen. Tom Udall, New Mexico Democrat, on Thursday called for his colleagues to reconsider the Daines-Wyden measure, but a second vote didn’t happen.
“Our failure to protect Americans from the federal government looking over their shoulder while they are on the internet and collecting personal information is unacceptable,” he said.
A second amendment also rejected by the Senate would have banned the FISA court from approving surveillance warrants to monitor U.S. citizens.
Lawmakers voted 85-11 to block the measure by Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican.
“I think we should admit that we can’t constitutionally allow Americans to be subjected to a search that doesn’t involve the Fourth Amendment,” Mr. Paul said before the vote. “I believe there is no fixing the FISA Court to make it constitutional for Americans. I believe the only solution is to exempt Americans from the FISA Court.”
The House bill does include some new privacy protections to the FISA process. It ended a deactivated program that allowed intelligence agencies to obtain with court approval Americans’ phone records.
The bill also includes stricter penalties for abusing the FISA process for political purposes or making false declarations before the court.
