The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Thursday he expects strong bipartisan support for a bill to add more civil liberties protections to the country’s chief foreign intelligence snooping law.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, will introduce the new bill Friday along with Rep. John Conyers Jr., the ranking Democrat on the committee, symbolizing the bipartisan effort in the House.
They are calling for federal agents to have to ask a court for permission if they want to use information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in a criminal investigation. They would also add more reporting requirements, and sunset the powers after six years.
The bill is a blow to the spy agencies, which had been hoping for a full and permanent reauthorization of Section 702, which is due to expire at the end of this year.
“I think it’s a very, very important national security tool and I think all of us recognize that, but we also recognize the need for some reforms,” said Mr. Goodlatte. “I think we will have a very strong bipartisan vote in the House.”
Mr. Goodlatte said he had consulted with members of the House Freedom Caucus in writing the bill, hoping to win over some lawmakers who had expressed concerns over the broad scope of snooping allowed by Section 702.
The law allows the government to collect email and phone communications for intelligence purposes. Targets cannot be Americans, and nobody on U.S. soil can be targeted no matter what their nationality. But their communications can be scooped up if they are in communication with a target.
The new bill would not help solve a trend of terrorists turning to heavy encryption or using the dark web to hide their communications.
“It’s something that is relatively new and we are having to bring ourselves up to speed and learn more from our intelligence organizations about how that’s being managed and what needs to be done,” said Mr. Goodlatte.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff of California said he supports the court order requirement and the increased protections for Americans who may have communications collected through the surveillance tool. But he thinks the bill needs some changes as it moves through Congress.
“I have concerns about the operational impacts of some elements of the proposal on counter terrorism efforts, and also believe there are additional privacy and transparency provisions and protections that should be added,” said Mr. Schiff.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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