The Senate in the early hours of April 20 voted to reauthorize a controversial spying power that briefly lapsed after a late-night vote series.
The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two years, passed in a 60–34 vote that concluded 45 minutes after the 12 a.m. ET deadline.
The bill, passed earlier in the week by the House, will now go to President Joe Biden’s desk. He’s called the reauthorization of the program “critical,” and is expected to swiftly sign the bill into law.
The vote came after lingering disagreements over the controversial surveillance program had Senate leadership scrambling to strike a deal on the rules of debate and amendments.
Lawmakers took votes on a series of amendments that would strengthen civil liberty protections.
However, none of these—including an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to require a warrant to search Americans’ Section 702 data and another by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to prohibit federal law enforcement from purchasing Americans’ data from third-party brokers—were passed by the Senate.
Hellbound and Down 