As one of the last congressional bills of 2023, President Joe Biden has signed into law Congress’s 2024 defense bill, which allocates $886 billion while also quietly updating controversial federal surveillance programs.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) contains an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA), which was originally passed in 1978 to provide oversight of foreign intelligence surveillance activities. Section 702, added in 2008, allows the federal government to monitor the communications of foreign nationals abroad without a warrant and collect data on Americans exchanging information with “targets” overseas, then store that data indefinitely for future investigations. .
“I also thank Congress for extending Title 7 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” Biden wrote in a White House statement. “My administration looks forward to working with Congress to reauthorize this important national regulation as soon as possible in the new year. Security agencies.”
Representatives say a reform bill for the 2024 session is still in the works, but supporters are wary of the Biden administration’s slow decision-making and worry it will continue to threaten privacy.
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The groups documented reasons for concern, citing not only a long history of surveillance abuse by federal agencies but also admissions by federal actors themselves. FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a House Homeland Security hearing in November that the bureau actually abused FISA’s authority before enacting more “restrictive” policies.
“Abuses and violations of civil liberties will continue at a completely unacceptable rate. Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said in an interview that Section 702 will continue to occur without reform. The situation continues to exist, every day, every week, every month, this is what is happening. mother jones.
However, Wray joins political commentators and politicians of all parties in calling on Congress to preserve Section 702, advocating for its use to target dangerous foreign actors and pointing to previous efforts to modernize the policy to adapt the policy to today’s technological realities – and ensuring Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Civilian groups and advocates have long charged that the program, far from protecting its citizens, is an unconstitutional use of government power and disproportionately affects some Americans more than others, including by increasing restrictions on communities of color and related organizations. Review. In May, newly declassified documents revealed that the FBI abused Section 702 to investigate Black Lives Matter protesters, congressional campaigns, and participants in the January 6 Capitol riot.
Section 702 itself is an outgrowth of FISA’s role in President George W. Bush’s post-9/11 war on terror, after it was revealed that the National Security Agency had used the act to spy on Americans.
Meanwhile, the same domestic surveillance strategy that has been heavily criticized has also used location data to arrest and prosecute U.S. citizens participating in demonstrations and protests, prompting companies and services like Google Maps to overhaul their privacy policies in 2023—albeit these involving the use of legal writs.
Andy Wong, communications director for Stop AAPI Hate, tells us mother jones Congress’s decision to push the program until after the new year for re-evaluation is a missed opportunity to protect citizens from such violations and thereby prevent communities from continuing to be at risk. “They’re kind of avoiding their responsibilities here.”
