Republicans Poised To Allow Continued Unfettered Government Spying On American Citizens

House Republicans cleared the way to renewing a surveillance tool that allows the government to spy on American citizens’ communications in a Wednesday vote.

Lawmakers adopted the procedural measure in a 216-210 vote, which cleared the way for Congress to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) section 702, which allows for warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals’ communications with Americans ahead of a Thursday deadline. Republican leaders have engaged in lengthy negotiations with members who wanted to amend section 702 to add restrictions to the surveillance of U.S. citizens’ communications.

Section 702 allows the government to collect and search American citizens’ data without a warrant if they were in contact with targeted noncitizens located outside of the U.S. It facilitates tracking foreign intelligence, cyber threats and terrorism, which often collect Americans’ data in the process.

House Republicans laid out several guardrails in their latest proposal to protect civil liberties, though it did not include a warrant requirement for searches of Americans’ information. They also advanced a farm bill and a budget blueprint to fund immigration agencies, which remained closed during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.

Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Lauren Boebert of Colorado introduced the “Surveillance Accountability Act” on Thursday, which would require federal law enforcement to show probable cause before accessing Americans’ private digital data.

The FBI conducted more than 200,000 warrantless searches on Americans’ information under FISA section 702 in 2022,